Weathering multiple storms (2)

The practice of “othering” or looking at those who hold social, economic, and overall cultural values that are quite different from ours is a result of social exclusion. This is usually done by the ruling majority population in a geographical area, leading to another oppressive practice of sidelining (or in popular Filipino slang, “pag-itsa puera”) of the voices of minority populations.

Provinces in the country that are ruled by the majority of lowland-based Christian Filipinos are most likely to disregard the belief systems of minority groups, among them Mindanao Muslim migrants, and do not consider these in local development planning and decision-making.

The opposite is also true for some local government units in the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao that are dominated by Bangsamoro Muslims. Some localities in the mainland areas are not only populated by Bangsamoro Muslims (Magindanawn, in the two Magindanao provinces; and Meranaw in Lanao del Sur province), but also by indigenous communities of Teduray, Teduray-Lambangian, Blaan, Manobo, and Higaonon, among others.

In addition, a substantial number of residents or those born in several localities in the region, like Cotabato City, are considered legal constituents there. They are referred to as the “settler communities” of the autonomous region.

Republic Act No. 11054 or the Bangsamoro organic law (BOL), created the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), an integral offshoot of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro signed in March 2014 during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III or P-Noy. It was the result of a long and tedious peace process spanning the terms of five Philippine presidents—Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and P-Noy.

The BOL provides for the legal guarantees of basic rights of not only its majority Muslim (Bangsamoro) populations but also of the indigenous and settler communities in it. The BARMM government has created the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs and the Office for Settler Communities as part of the regional autonomous bureaucracy.

However, in a few localities in Maguindanao del Norte and del Sur, some indigenous communities of the Teduray and Teduray-Lambangian have expressed how the phenomenon of social exclusion reared its ugly head after the destructive Tropical Storm “Paeng” (international name: Nalgae). Several Teduray and Teduray-Lambangian houses were buried under huge rocks, mud, and floodwaters as a result of Paeng. Consequently, 27 people were killed (some Teduray regional leaders claim there were more)—they were buried alive when their houses collapsed in the onslaught of the eroding soil and boulders from nearby Mount Minandar. Their houses, built through a municipal relocation project of the municipality of Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao del Norte, were located near the foot of Mount Minandar, which is just across the coastal barangay of Kusiong. It is called Sitio Tinabon, in reference to the concave nature of the area. According to a fact-finding report of one Teduray-Lambangian member of the current Bangsamoro Transition Authority, the Teduray community in the area initially opposed the relocation site in consideration of their traditional belief that the area in Sitio Tinabon was considered “sacred.” For them, the area was a transition site for the souls of the departed among them, before they are brought to their final destination through the sea that is just across the sacred site. But the local government leadership there considered this as just a superstitious belief; it ignored several appeals from the Teduray community there and decided to go ahead with the relocation project.

As a generally peace-loving people, the indigenous Teduray community beneficiaries of the relocation site assented to the local government leadership decision. A few years after, Paeng struck, hitting the relocation houses first, among others, since these were right at the foot of the mountain whose soil had loosened as a result of long years of intensive logging (since the martial law years of the elder Marcos), and of mining it of gravel for local construction needs.

Social exclusionary practices of local government units have exacerbated the effects of “natural” storms that happen frequently among the impoverished, marginalized, and sidelined indigenous communities in the region. There is a need to revert such practices toward more social inclusion—engaging indigenous communities at every step in the planning and decision-making processes, even during the conception stages of any development project, until its implementation.

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