FOR many of us, lumads (indigenous peoples) are the costumed people from whom we derive our ethnic music and dances from. They are also those who come down from the mountains every Christmas season to go caroling, and just meander around in the city.

To many still, they are looked down on as beggars, treated as a class below everyone else, and worthy only of either pity or disdain.

They are, however, the people whose roots date back to the time when Mindanao was an island free of colonizers and divisive religions. They are our lumads, who for generations hence have been swept to the margins, barely surviving but holding on to their pride as a people.

Now, generations hence, the indigenous peoples are striving to be heard and to push forth their heritage so as to build a future that is still rooted in their past but are attuned to present-day demands. At the forefront are their children.

Law students

At first glance, they are like any other students aspiring for their individual dreams. But not quite, because within them throbs their dream for their people as well.

Joan M. Basoc, 20, Sheena Mae P. Onlos, 24, Jenefer M. Ambe, 17, Emman Rey Dapaing, 25, and Kevin John T. Malinog, 20, are but five of the scholars of the Ateneo de Davao University-based Mindanawon Initiatives for Cultural Dialogues (Mindanawon), and they are sacrificing a lot just to get a shot at their dreams.

"Kinahanglan man gud sa community og legal counsel og kung anak ka og datu, kinahanglan nga mo-serve ka sa community (Our community needs legal counsel and customs dictate that when you are an offspring of a tribal datu, you have to serve your community)," said Onlos, a Mansaka from Tagum City who is in second year Ateneo Law School.

Admitting that keeping up with the standards of law school, especially at Ateneo, is very difficult Onlos says what keeps her going is the knowledge that indigenous peoples have been sidelined for so long despite the fact that there is the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 (Ipra Law).

"Naa lagi balaod, pero wala man na-implement og tarong (There is a law but it is not implemented well)," she said.

At present, she said, there are lawyers from indigenous origins in Tagum, but they are those who have just admitted they are from indigenous tribes because indigenous peoples are no longer as discriminated against as they were before.

On the other hand, Dapaing, another Mansaka this time from Maragusan, Compostela Valley, who is also in second year law, said that there is yet to be a lawyer from the Mansaka tribe in their villages not because they have no need for such, but because most from their tribe cannot afford.

"Sa Comval pa lang, daghan kaayong issue nga na-involve ang tribo parehas sa nganong nakasulod ang mining (In Comval alone, there are a lot of issues that beset indigenous communities, like how was mining able to enter our lands)?" he said.

Basoc, a Mandaya from Caraga, Davao Oriental, who is in first year law, said becoming a lawyer is a personal ambition brought about by her realizations as a scholar of Pamulaan in the University of Southeastern Philippines-Mintal.

"Naa ko didto for two years, nakita nako unsa gusto sa mga natibo nga dili nila makab-ot (In my two years in Pamulaan, I saw what the indigenous peoples were striving for but seemingly cannot achieve)," Basoc said.

She also saw the irony, that as a Pamulaan scholar there were a lot of professionals who were speaking up for the indigenous peoples, but very few indigenous people doing so.

"Nagasulti sila bahin sa natibo, pero dili sila natibo (They are speaking up for us and yet they are not one of us)," she said.

She thus sees her aspiration to become a lawyer as a perfect fit for what her people needs.

Basoc, Onlos and Dapaing are the first law scholars of Mindanawon.
Dapaing and Onlos's tuition are taken care of by donors Lanny Nañagas and Sonny Marcelo, while their other school and daily expenses are supported by regular donors of the Mindanawon Lumad Scholarship Program, including the Davao Light and Power Company and the Ladies of Charity, aside from individual contributors.

Basoc, on the other hand, is supported by the Tanging Yaman Foundation of Fr. Manoling Francisco, SJ.

Enamored by education

Ambe, the youngest among the five, wanted to be a policewoman so she can help solve crimes. She's not qualified though. She is too small to be a cop.

A Tagabawa Bagobo from Sibulan in Toril District, Davao City, Ambe just opted to take up nursing at the University of Mindanao (UM), because that was offered to her. She can still help as a nurse, she explains.

"In case makahuman, gusto ko mobalik sa akong community kay naa man ko'y nadungog na nakahuman pero niadto man og abroad (Should I be able to complete this couse, I intend to serve my people in our community. I've heard there was someone who finished nursing among our tribe, but is now working abroad)," Ambe said.

Hers is a story of a young girl trapped by financial constraints and a community where early marriage is still being practiced for lack of other apparent alternatives.

"Sa tradition na man pud siguro na. Unya mga 10 percent lang siguro ang maka-eskwela hangtod high school, unya maminyo man gihapon (It's tradition. Among the young in our community, just around 10 percent would finish high school but they would end up married soon after)," she said.

Ambe was able to get a scholarship with Mindanawon because of her uncle Hernan Ambe, also of Sibulan.

Her uncle asked her if she wanted to continue her studies and having said she is very interested, was told her to come home as soon as possible.

"Gikasab-an pa gani ko at that time kay dugay ko niabot kay nag-eskwela pa man pud ko sa Bukidnon (My uncle scolded me for taking so long to come home. But that was because I was completing my schooling in Bukidnon)," she said. Her taking long to come home made her miss the deadline for a scholarship with Pamulaan, and so her uncle brought her to Perpy C. Tio of Mindanawon. Tio is the scholars' Ma'am Perpy who oversees their needs and academic performance.

Ambe said was just asked to write an essay, but was not given any assurance that she would get a scholarship.

Tio explained that it was because they still did not have a specific donor who has committed to take care of Ambe's school fees. Since there is just enough for everyone's needs, Mindanawon could not afford to send another one from its own resources.

Ambe said she was already prepared to accept her fate to just spend the rest of her adult life in their village, to marry young and beget her own family, when there was no word sent about her scholarship, even when enrolment for school year 2010-2011 was supposed to have already been over.

"Naa ko sa simbahan niato, nagatabang, giapas ko aron ingnan nga moabot si Ma'am Perpy (I was at our village church helping out when I was told that Ma'am Perpy was arriving)," she said. "Mura ko'g sakyanan kapaspas nidagan (I ran home as fast as a car)."

The donor who committed to fund a scholar wanted that scholar to take up nursing. Ambe accepted without second thoughts.

Classes started on June 12, Ambe was enrolled on June 15. Her donor is a medical doctor resident in the US who is an alumni of the Ateneo de Davao. A member of the Ladies of Charity, Mrs. Caridad Marasigan partly contributes to Ambe's other needs.

Dreaming of a road

Malinog, a T'boli who struggles on his fourth year as civil engineering student at the Ateneo, recalls the time when he yearned to become an engineer.

He was still very young then, he said, and he was outside their house in Lake Sebu, watching what little vehicle traffic (just skylab motorcycles, really) there was in their village.

"Tabo niato, naay niaging skylab nga ang karga niya mga tiguwang. Kay lubak-lubak ang dalan, natumba ang skylab or nahulog 'tong tiguwang (It was market day and an improvised single motorcycle with planks serving as passenger seats passed by carrying a load of elderly people. Because the road was very rough, the motorcycle fell, so did its passengers)," Malinog said.

That made him ponder of the possibility of becoming an engineer.
He admits engineering is a very difficult course, and that he has had to deal with a lot of failing grades, but he is not giving up.

"Motivated kaayo ko, magpadayon gyud ko kay ang akong naisip bisan maglahi-lahi pa na kurso it is not an assurance na makatabang ka (I am very motivated to reach for my dream because I have already pondered on it that while we can take different courses it will never be an assurance that you will be able to help), what really matters is what's in your heart," he said. He goes on to say that while he doesn't dance his people's dances it doesn't mean he is less of a T'boli than others.

He just doesn't dance. In his heart he is a T'boli and that is what matters.

Malinog enjoys free tuition and registration fee from a scholarship grant of Ateneo de Davao, while his other needs are provided by Mindanawon.

All in the family

The scholars are housed in an airy bahay kubo along a sidestreet of Roxas Avenue a walking distance from Ateneo. There, they share rooms and board and they get to meet their fellow scholars' parents and tribesmen who are brought over to strengthen their indigenous knowledge and share the similarities and peculiarities of the different tribes.

Mindanawon provides for their basic needs so as to allow them to just focus on their studies.

All five attribute their being there to Fr. Albert E. Alejo SJ, who has made it his avocation to help lumads become professionals helping their people.

Dapaing said he was already gainfully employed in a mining firm in Masara, Compostela Valley, assigned as safety training coordinator, when he was challenged by Fr. Alejo to take on the bigger challenge of becoming a lawyer for their tribe.

"Gwapo na unta ang salary kay as a single person, kanang makagawas-gawas na ka sa gabii; pero gina-sacrifice ko gyud na aron sa mas dako nga challenge (My salary was good for a single person. I can afford to go out at night. But I had to sacrifice that and take on this bigger challenge)," he said.

Onlos, on the other hand, has to stand up against her family's preference for a Tagum law school so that she can still work with the local government unit, where she was working.

"Dili sila gusto na diri ko sa Ateneo kay dili nila gusto na buhian nako akong trabaho. Naa man St. Thomas Moore sa Tagum (My parents doesn't want me here at Ateneo because they were against my giving up my job with the city. There is also a law school in Tagum, St. Thomas Moore)," she said.

She, however, recognizes the better opportunity offered by her scholarship and thus resolved to just live with her parents' displeasure.

There are also their academics, the need to be able to be at par with fellow students who had better educational background than they ever had in their hinterland schools. And the need to live far away from their communities. All these they are taking on just because they have a dream for themselves, for their people.

"It does not mean na dahil Mandaya ka, magpaka-ignorante ka," Basoc said. "Dapat proud ka, with honor yang pagiging Mandaya."

To which Dapaing added that it has been a byword among communities in Comval that anything crude is Mansaka of origin.

"Mura man ka Mansaka (You're acting like a Mansaka)," is a common expression, he said, expressing disparagement on some crude actions.

This shouldn't be so, and they intend to put things to right, because they are today's lumads.

Estella A. Estremera/taxonomy/term/205