AS HUNDREDS walked the streets of Cebu bringing with them tents, placards and limited amount of food last Aug. 22 to 25, students of a state university joined them to listen to the visitors’ stories and share them with the Cebuanos.
The lumads, moros and other members of the minority camped out at the Fuente Osmena circle, where they received visitors and conducted programs as part of a program dubbed Lakbayan 2017, which means “the people’s journey.”
In commemoration of Human Rights Week, the University of the Philippines (UP-C) Political Science Society, UPC-University Student Council, and the Journalism 103-B students took photographs during Lakbayan 2017 to look at the situation and listen to the true stories of our indigenous minority.
LAKBAYANI is a photojournalism exhibit that aimed to spread awareness on the multitude of alleged state-instigated human rights violations against members of the indigenous community.
Decelle Marie Suarez, College of Communication Art and Design (CCAD) Representative of UPC-USC, said the dawn of the crisis of the nation’s minority shouldn’t be ignored. “It is our utmost priority to protect and voice out the calls of our Lumads in Mindanao. This event is only a manifestation that the threat is no longer here but the danger inflicted on them exists,” she lamented.
The exhibit, which ran from Sept. 18 to 22 at the UP Cebu Jose Joya Gallery, was also organized by third year Mass Communication students and Layag Productions of UP.