P-Noy among the Mangyan

Everybody and his/her cousins are trotting out vignettes about the recently departed former President Benigno Aquino III to show their, alas, belated and posthumous gratitude for his brand of leadership and accomplishments. Many of these were set on the world stage and amid critical defining moments. Here, let me bring out a little-known presidential moment in the lives of the marginalized.

Something groundbreaking and historic happened on Dec. 15, 2010. But there was no mention of it in the national media. No news stories, no photos, no TV coverage. (I did write about it much later.)

For the community of Hanunuo, Gubatnon and Ratagnon (Hagura) Mangyan of Occidental Mindoro, it was a day they will never forget. P-Noy flew to Magsaysay town to make the day very special. The Mangyan awaited his coming with bated breath and the sight of the descending helicopter with the President on board added to the excitement.

P-Noy was going to award the certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) which the Mangyan and their supporters, particularly the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM), had awaited for the last 15 years. The long and arduous struggle began in 1995 and many living Mangyan elders did not think they would live to see the day. Many of the elders who had presented proofs of their ancestral domain claim had either died or were sickly.

Hagura is the organization to which three Mangyan tribes belong. It covers 14 sitios in Magsaysay and three in San Jose. It was set up in 1995 to consolidate efforts to acquire legal right and develop the ancestral domain of the three tribes.

The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples processed the claims while the FMMs assisted in the surveys and explained the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act to the Mangyan. The nuns climbed mountains, crossed rivers, slept in the open, ate what the Mangyan ate and, most of all, listened to the people’s sentiments.

When the Mangyan learned that the CADT would at last be awarded to them, they made a request that would be rebuffed again and again: for the President to come and hand over to them the CADT and for him to behold the joy on their faces. Well, as the cosmists would say, when you desire something good so intensely, the universe will conspire to make it happen.

An FMM, Sr. Cho Borromeo, had saved the phone number of then presidential candidate Noynoy in her cell phone’s contacts. (Sr. Cho and I became close friends while spending months together and experiencing Asian spirituality in India many years ago. She gives spiritual retreats around the world. Her heart belongs to the forlorn and forgotten.)

Upon learning from her fellow nuns that the Mangyan had been rebuffed, Sr. Cho called the number that she had saved. It was suntok sa buwan. No answer. Again and again she called. Then someone answered the phone. “Is this the President?” she asked. “Yes,” the President answered. Sr. Cho shook in her shoes.

The President said, yes, he will come, but could the awarding be moved a day later? P-Noy flew by helicopter to Magsaysay town and was met by Mangyan elders wearing G-strings and head gear. (I did post a photo of the President with the Mangyan in my blogsite.)

Addressing the Mangyan, he said: “Sa paggawad natin ng CADT sa grupong Hagura ngayong araw, hindi lamang lupang ninuno ang ibinabalik natin sa kanila. Higit sa lahat, patunay ito sa pagkilala natin sa lahat ng Mangyan bilang mahalagang pangkat ng ating lipunan; makabuluhang bahagi ng ating kultura at kasaysayan.

“Tulad ninyo, naniniwala rin akong hindi lamang ito isang paggawad. Isa itong pagpupugay sa inyong tapang upang maibalik sa inyo ang lupang ipinagkait sa inyo nang mahabang panahon. Ngayong hawak na muli ninyo ang lupang ipinamana ng inyong mga ninuno, umaasa akong patuloy kayong magiging katuwang ng pamahalaan upang pangalagaan ang kinabukasan ng mga susunod na Mangyan; ng mga sumusunod ring mga Pilipino.”

(P-Noy often delivered speeches in fluent Filipino in his husky baritone, sometimes laced with stinging sarcasm aimed at the corrupt.)

A battle had been won, but the Mangyan do not rest easy because of threats to their domain, among them, illegal logging, commercial mining, creeping pasturelands, and fighting between the military and the communist rebels.

P-Noy admitted in his speech that it was a nun’s persistence that brought him into the midst of the men and women of the great forests. And so it was that P-Noy was among the Mangyan on that auspicious December day written in the stars.

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