IT HAS been a year since the book Wars of Extinction: Discrimination and the Lumad Struggle in Mindanao came out in print and it is now more relevant than ever. The story of Mindanao’s indigenous peoples is indeed a contested narrative with various forces claiming genuine representation. The book clearly takes a side in this debate that continues to rage not just in the staid halls of the academe but also now in the streets.
About 38 Higaonon families have been encamping at the provincial capitol for months to flee from the presence of the military within their communities amidst intensifying counterinsurgency operations in the hinterlands of Misamis Oriental. They belong to the Tagtublon lumad organization of Sitio Camansi, Lagonglong and their demands include the immediate pull out of the military from their communities so that they can continue their indigenous way of life free from the threat of conflict and harassment from government forces.
They have been maliciously tagged as rebel supporters and have constantly suffered from threats and harassment since; that is why they have descended from the mountains to the capitol to dramatize their plight. But this difficult and desperate move that brought them far from their farms and community still did not spare them from the persecution they were fleeing from.
For months, even in the urban center, they have been the target of one form of harassment after another. There was a time when a film showing was forcibly staged in their encampment vilifying the groups and organizations that they are allied with. The most recent is when a court order for habeas corpus was supposedly filed by relatives of those in the evacuation center claiming that those in the camp were there under duress.
But none of these best portray the contested and political nature of the Lumad identity when busloads of Higaonon Lumad from Bukidnon arrived to express support for government and the military at the provincial capitol on August 1, 2018. According to news reports, there was a face-off between the two groups at the capitol and a rally was staged in the vicinity of the International Fact Finding Mission in nearby Pilgrim Christian College with the transported group condemning the said activity for attacking government.
This sad development not only shows division among the Lumads themselves but reveal that there are opposing sides with government having its own set of bussed-in and sponsored rallyists. It is easy to interpret this cynically as a confrontation between political groups where the Lumad serve as proxy for political causes. But this is actually the desired outcome and design of those who pit one Lumad group versus another.
The book Wars of Extinction argues that the Lumad identity arose from the struggles of Mindanao’s indigenous peoples against state-sponsored development aggression during the Marcos dictatorship. It was an ascribed political identity that the18 ethnic tribes of Mindanao collectively identified with because they faced common historical struggles against logging enterprises and then large agricultural enterprises and mining intruding into their ancestral domains. It is a reality that continues to this day that is why the Lumad cause remains legitimate and various groups work hard to discredit or appropriate it.
In fact, the “bakwits” of Sitio Camansi are but the latest casualties in this unrelenting drive for state-sponsored businesses to come in. Reports indicate that a geothermal energy project is in the works as well as the expansion of multinational agricultural plantations in the area.
Given this history and context, it is important to ask and be critical: who are the bearers of the true Lumad identity and struggle? Do we consider those who have sold off their ancestral land to state-sponsored multinational mining and agricultural enterprises to the detriment of their people still Lumad just because government has found it useful to label them and use them as such? Maybe, we need to remind ourselves of the painful historical circumstances of the Lumad struggle and how this bleeds into our time at present. The book Wars of Extinction might provide some necessary insights into these burning questions of the day.