Friday, September 05, 2008 Ledesma: A stab at the truth By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
T'BOLI chieftain Samuel Haus has a message to tell. His people are among the first to inhabit the island of Mindanao. The others being the B'laans, Bagobos, Manobos, Tirurays and Tagakaolos to name a few.
The other day, following an encounter between T'boli tribesmen who also dwell in Lake Sebu and some elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Haus issued a fair warning that the ancestral domain of his people is not subject to territorial dispute between he MILF and the government.
The T'bolis that I knew are a gentle people. So gentle that in the past they were exploited by people who made them objects of devious crusade in the name of preserving their cultural heritage. The truth was they were exploited and served as spectacles to satisfy the fetishism of weird bureaucrats who pretended to care for them in the name of integration. Even the religious and the so-called non-government organizations had wanted to just make them cultural spectacles.
Datu Haus had seen these transpired and this exploitation almost succeeded in trapping him and his people in stagnation, backwardness and submissiveness.
Not anymore. Samuel Haus is one of the many enlightened tribal leaders in South Cotabato where he is also the provincial chieftain. Datu Sam recalled that among the most bitter experience that they went through was when they were sweet-talked to lease their farms for a song to a pineapple firm in exchange for jobs that never came. Datu Sam would heave a sigh each time he recalls how he and his people were gypped. The company, he said, sort of went into trouble with their marketing strategies that they closed without even telling them what went wrong.
Their pineapple farms were abandoned when the canning factory closed. "Our people went hungry. I was ashamed of ourselves because there was a time that whenever you hear a radio news about robbery nine to one it involves a T'boli. Datu Haus, who speaks fluent Ilonggo having married an Ilongga, does not hide his contempt at people behind the canning firm who, he said, should be taught the true meaning of "corporate social responsibility.
It is not surprising therefore if Haus courageously comes out to warn intruders not to bring trouble into their lands. When the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo finally issued a title for ancestral domain, the T'bolis mustered enough verve to move forward. Secured with the title to their domain, they emerged from their lethargy and meekness. The uprooted the wilting pineapple plants and started planting plowing their fertile lands again. Soon a banana firm talked to them to lease their lands and again promising them employment. This time Datu Haus and his men had gotten wiser to the vagaries of corporate operations.
Guided by NCIP Commissioners Jannette Serrano Reisland and Felicito Masagnay, they demanded for a free prior informed consent before a Certificate of Precondition could be issued. Haus kept his people informed through open consultation. In the end, they got what they wanted. A lease of their land nearly thrice the what they got from the pineapple firm and the privilege of having a family member employed: one employment for every 1.5 hectare of land leased. On top of these, farms which had been mortgaged at unconscionable rate were redeemed by the banana firm. These days, T'bolis can no longer be found in the police logbook.
Datu Haus looks forward to the day when the government and the MILF find solution to the troubles that are hounding the Moro people. He was perplexed why the MILF has rejected the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act. He said that if homeland and ancestral domain were the prime concern the IPRA law substantially addresses those concerns. Haus moreover admitted that he is not aware of what other agenda has the MILF. As far as he is personally concerned the IPRA law suffices. Having said that the provincial chieftain of South Cotabato reiterated that the IPs have to bond together to protect their ancestral domains from the invasion from wherever side because these are their legacies to their future generation.
