ON MY way to work this morning, I could not help but notice an office of what I would presume as that of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples here in Bacolod City located at 7th and Lacson streets as it had a whiteboard stand with a handwritten sign that says NCIP.
In all my travels all over the country, it was my first time to encounter an office of a national agency with a pathetic signage. Excuse my words but I was appalled by the thought that no one from the office took effort in making a pretty decent signage that would make the office respectable other than a whiteboard stand with a very bad handwritten sign. A tarpaulin that would cost no more than P100 will even suffice.
Such a sight is quite telling especially about the plight of our indigenous tribes in the country; no one seemed to care much and so they always end up being marginalized.
You see, in my consultancy stints with LGUs I always have a strong advocacy in empowering the indigenous group. I would always make extra efforts in influencing leadership that is sensitive to the needs of our tribal people who are almost always deprived of access to basic social services. Even to date, a lot of them are very laid back and somehow their economic development is still on the level of subsistence. Yet you will be shocked as well of the richness of their culture that is far better than what we have in highly urbanized settlements.
Indeed while there are laws that would ideally protect them and preserve their identity, they have been pushed to the side and have been marginalized over time. They thrive on their own to adapt to the fast changes of development but as they do, some of their cultural identity gets compromised and vanishes forever. I’m no expert in dealing with IPs. I hardly know anyone on a personal note. But with what little experience I had with them I am certain that every aspect of their culture is worth preserving.
I remembered while I was teaching at a university, I asked around who among my students are members of a tribe. Surprisingly there was one. So I asked what three issues does she think beset her tribe in relation to our government and the society in general. Here’s the gist of the issues she shared to me.
1. Discrimination. Among peers, other sub cultures are seen to be cool but once a person is identified as an IP, he or she is regarded as uneducated and uncultured, almost likened to the abandoned children loitering on the streets. It is for this reason that while Muslims, Chinese, Bisaya, and Ilocanos are proud of their identity, IPs would usually deny their root. In schools and in other institutions we have prayer rooms for Christians and Muslims but none are provided for indigenous people. IP’s pray to nature in open air so it would have been ideal that a small prayer park be provided for IPs to give reverence to the forces of nature.
Adding insult to injury is that when an IP member gets educated in the city, he or she would usually learn from the new modern culture and bring it to his tribe as if it is more superior than their laid-back traditions resulting to diminishing appreciation of the ancient ways that had been passed on within their tribe.
2. Disrespect. It pains my student to see a few of their holy relics displayed in museums as if they are collectors’ items for tourists to feast on. Some of these relics are symbols of forces they worship while others are of their beloved departed.
Their traditional knowledge that their parents pass on to them are also regarded as next to stupid if not moronic especially when the more educated people invoke the argument on science. They may not be able to provide clear cut scientific explanations of their peculiar ways of doing things but these traditions have been the product of decades of experiences that their forefathers have in interacting with nature. At least those deserve the minimum respect.
3. Wrong sense of help. While the government and some sectors in the community recognizes their existence and somehow wanted to help them, almost always their definition of help is to change the IPs to act like the people in the city and adopt instead of preserving the IP’s identity and culture. People fail to see and appreciate the richness of the culture of IPs. And hardly there are efforts that help IP’s remember, rekindle and relive their ancient traditions.
Indeed, IP’s are no less than victims of progress and development. And unless we find time to really look and learn about their culture, then we will never know what we are missing.
As to the signage I saw this morning, perhaps it would be great to start with insisting that they should have an office worthy of respect. They deserve more than a handwritten sign on a whiteboard outside the office that would supposedly provide them access to all their needs.