Details

Cotabato City, Philippines -- Four major breakthroughs were identified by IPDEV in the course of project implementation in the last three months.

As reported to the 7th Project Sounding Board (PSB) Meeting on November 13, 2013, these breakthroughs are:

- Adoption and Ritual of the Teduray Ancestral Domain Sustainability and Protection Plan (ADSDPP)

- Selection of IP Mandatory Representatives for Wao, Lanao del Sur (1 Municipal and 4 bgy) with adopted local guidelines.

- Accessibility of data on IPs in the ARMM (www.iag.org.ph)

- 3 hectares of land donated by outgoing barangay chairman to Katutubo IP Organization in Milaya, Wao, Lanao del Sur.

A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on Sawit or Indigenous Concept of Wealth sharing was also conducted. (The said FGD established that Sawit was an age-old practice that was continued by the siblings Mamalo and Tabunaway even when Tabunaway decided to be converted to Islam. Mamalo being the older brother saw to it that his younger brother was able to partake something from their harvest, especially rice which is considered sacred. In return, Mamalo let his older brother bring some dried fish when he goes back home.)

In the quarter being reported, selected Lumads completed training on Advocacy and Campaign Management; Korean Method of Hog-Raising; and Bamboo Craft.

IPDEV Quarterly Publication Ketindeg was also able to acquire its own International Standard Serial Number, ISSN 2345-8461; the weekly radio program Balitang Lumad on DXMY every Saturday 10-11am is now on its fourth month; a brochure on IP Facts and Figures has been printed and already circulated; the video documentary on Tiyawan (Indigenous Conflict Settlement) has already been reproduced and is already being distributed. Copies of the video documentary, brochure and Ketindeg were also distributed in Berlin, Germany during the awarding ceremonies for Leadership in Change where IPDEV Cultural Information Specialist Prof ReyDan Lacson is the only Asian Awardee (Development Diplomacy).

During the same period, IPDEV contributed inputs to the Security Summit (Forum on Prospects for Post-Conflict Philippines); several fora on Wealth Sharing, Power Sharing and Transitional Justice for proposed inclusions into the Bangsamoro Basic Law; and to the Making Justice Work for the Marginalized (MJWM) a Supreme Court-UNDP Assisted Project for a scoping mission on pending legal cases filed by the Indigenous Peoples for environmental degradation and intrusion into ancestral domains.

Continued advocacy will be conducted towards the forging of a working agreement between the ARMM Government and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for the implementation of IPRA which remains to be unimplemented since it was passed in 1997. Both agencies are mandated to implement the IPRA law.