Pakloy

My true-blue Cebuano a.k.a. bisdak Nanay had this word for sissies.  I remember her spewing this crisp expletive whenever

1)      we kids did a sloppy job;

2)      we did not move in a snappy way;

3)      we could not decide or we made stupid decisions;

4)      we acted like wimps; or

5)      someone else moved the way we kids did in numbers 1-4.

No, I do not associate it with gay-hood inasmuch as first, I am not a boy; and second, I think sissy-ness applies to both male and female, young or old even if Wikipedia says it somehow applies to males.

Now why did I think of pakloy after not hearing it in like thousands of years? It’s a lazy Christmas morning and I had the luxury of wasting sometime on something insignificant, say, the 15-minute video (no sound) of a certain mayor in a situation with security guards of a posh subdivision in the National Capital Region. 

Uneventful at first, until there’s somebody so concerned enough to pull out an umbrella and made payong someone who happens to be male.  I tried figuring out whether it was drizzling or something: looks like it was not.  Of course videos can be deceiving; I must have missed the drizzle.

“Ka-pakloy ba,” I heard myself muttering. 

What’s the big deal with men who have to be sheltered with umbrellas anyway?  So that they will not catch colds?  Or a fever?  If it was indeed drizzling can they not carry umbrellas by themselves? 

Ohw-kay then.  What’s the more potent turn-off: men who have to be sheltered with umbrellas (pinapayungan) or men who always get colds (sipunin)? 

Multiply the situation, radiating outside the NCR.  It is not rare to see the most masculine of men scampering for shelter with the slightest hint of a drizzle.  If someone treats them like babies then umbrellas are flipped open somewhere offering refuge.

Long shot, but yes, I see this type of use of the umbrella as a reflection of how things are being run in this country.  Those who are expected to make things happen are actually hiding under the shelter of position and power.  Rolling up one’s sleeves and getting one’s hands dirty to get things done have now become relative.  That’s the real turn-off.

I know my closest friends do not feel slighted when I gently turn down any offer for being “payonged”.  For one, I have proven to myself that drizzles do not have a direct correlation to being sick.  Let those who have money to spend on elaborate research disprove that.

While there are a million ways of separating the sissies from the willful, it may take so much effort to convince me that umbrellas are not among them.

*****

Cotabato City

25 December 2013

Aveen Acuña-Gulo posts in her Facebook as the Monumental Operations Manager (MOM) who is a Bukidnon-born Cebuano mother of three (3) Maguindanao-Ilonggo-Cotabateño children.  She will always be a child at heart even if she is a hundred years old.    :-)

 

Honor the IPRA

(This was delivered in Filipino)

STATEMENT OF SUPPORT

To the Lumads in the ARMM:

Teduray, Lambangian, Dulangan Manobo, Higaonon

Greetings of Peace!

The journey for Lumad recognition in the ARMM did not start yesterday, last year or in the last decade.  Like many of its fellow Lumads in Mindanao, it has suffered, in the words of researchers – minoritization – with the entry of settlers and their different versions of development.    

Right after the EDSA Revolution, a bill for Indigenous Peoples Rights was filed, in the same year that a bill creating an autonomous region in Mindanao was filed.  Today as we all celebrate the 18^th Celebration of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, let us recall some markers in recent history. 

August 9 is the date declared by the UN General Assembly in December of 1994 and was celebrated the year after.

1997 was a landmark year for the Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines.  It was the year that a law protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples was passed.  What took about three years to pass a law creating the ARMM took 11 arduous years for IPRA to be passed. 

IPRA as we all know seeks to recognize, promote and protect the rights of the Indigenous Peoples.  These bundle of rights include the Right to Ancestral Domain; the Right to Self-Governance and Empowerment; Social Justice and Human Rights; and Right to Cultural Integrity.

In 2003, the Regional Legislative Assembly adopted Resolution No 269 to ensure the application of IPRA in the ARMM; and mandating the OSCC to formulate the implementing rules and regulations.

In 2005, Resolution No 119 was passed by the Regional Legislative Assembly approving the implementation of Resolution No 269 for the delineation of the ancestral domain claims of the non-Moro IPs in the ARMM.

In 2006, Administrative Order No 1 was issued – these are guidelines in the implementation of the Free and Prior Informed Consent or FPIC.  FPIC is the consensus of all members of the Indigenous Cultural Communities which is determined in accordance with their respective customary laws and practices that is free from any external manipulation, interference and coercion and obtained after fully disclosing the intent and scope of the program/project/activity, in a language and process the community understands.

In 2007, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was passed.

In 2008, Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act 241 or what is better known as the Tribal Peoples’ Rights Act, was passed.  The implementing rules and regulations were reviewed and finally passed five years after, in 2012.

Glimmer of Hope

Twenty-seven years after EDSA Revolution, sixteen years after the passing of IPRA, ten years after Resolution 269, five years after MMAA 241 – it was pronounced by the ARMM Government early this year that there is no legal impediment in implementing the IPRA in the ARMM.  Moreover, the newly appointed members of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) have just assumed office in August 1. 

Though long in coming, these two developments provide a glimmer of hope in the journey of the Lumad in the ARMM.  It is hoped that the endless passing around of the Lumads in the ARMM, marginalized as they are, would finally come to a stop. 

As this year’s theme is: “Indigenous Peoples Building Alliances: Honouring Treaties, Agreements and other Constructive Arrangements”, we support the call of the Lumads in the ARMM for the NCIP to look at IPRA again as the government’s peace agreement with the Indigenous Peoples. As pacts and agreements were forged orally in the ways of our forefathers, manifestation of this Word of Honor is the issuance of the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT).

The Lumads in the ARMM – Teduray, Lambangian, Dulangan Manobo and Higaonon – need all the support they can get.  From us who are in privileged positions, let this be a call.  Remember that we, too, at certain points in our history, also suffered oppression from the powerful and the mighty.  Let us not be the oppressors of today by depriving the Lumads of what are rightfully theirs.  As Nelson Mandela quoted Williamson in his inaugural speech: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”  Let the implementation of IPRA be the legacy. 

On behalf of our operating partners – the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG), Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), and Development Consultants (DEVCON); funders European Commission (EC) and German Government – IPDEV as an independent entity reiterates its support to all initiatives that will recognize the Lumads in the ARMM for their empowerment and sustainable development. 

Meuyag!

Aveen Acuña-Gulo

Project Manager

IPDEV

9^th day of August, 2013 in the Celebration of the 18^th World IP Day.

Cotabato City, Philippines

Nothing

There’s nothing really in the 4^th SONA that we have not heard in the last twelve months.  At least for those of us who had access to conventional and social media.    

The choir wore ethnic-inspired costume that to my untrained eye looked Teduray.  Why it didn’t seem to be a portent of things to be mentioned in the SONA I have no idea.

Throughout the applause-interrupted 104-minute speech I waited for issues regarding indigenous peoples to be mentioned.  Nothing.  Oh sorry, there was the choir.  Then a wee bit about “katutubo” getting health insurance.  And then images of indigenous people ready to give baskets to tourists.  Then nothing.   

I must have expected too much.  The SONA should have been titled State of Metro Manila Address.  What would a P200 million profit from water services mean to a Mindanawon, anyway?  Or a fantastic railway system that would run the rat race faster?  Instead of decongesting a sinking metro by dispersing resources, it seemed like an invitation for people from the provinces to congest it further.  That then gives more justification for passing the Reproductive Health Law, maybe.

Surely there’s a connection between floodwaters and logging; between rice and cartels; between full coverage and the spike in hospitalizations; between cash transfers and NGOs; between wealth-sharing and environmental protection.  But in the speech the connections did not cross over.  Di tumawid. 

Let’s leave the Alelluiahs for the accomplishments to each government office with its own press relations budget. 

The non-mention of indigenous peoples’ issues is actually a reflection of the outright neglect of the Aquino administration to fulfill its part as duty holder.  Issues like mining, logging, foreign investors, human rights.  Moreover, it seems to have forgotten, too, that when the government passed Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) in 1997, it signed a Peace Agreement with the indigenous peoples of this country.    

A Peace Agreement? Yes, it is.  And what makes IPRA unique as a Peace Agreement is that it was largely fought in the legal arena, not in the war zone.  It was won without a solid armed front.  That makes two Peace Agreements that the government has become wanting in fulfilling its side of the pact.  Do we know what is usually done to a party that reneges? 

Despite its flaws, the IPRA is also a poverty alleviation program.  Why subject IPs to the indignity of dole-outs and plastic cards when their indigenous knowledge, skills, and practices are still existing?  Why give them investors when they sorely ask for schools?  When they know how to read and write and be competitive, can’t they then decide for themselves what business endeavor to undertake?  When given the chance to manage their resources by themselves, can’t they not also show stewardship and prudence like their forefathers?  Government is only the facilitator, the guide – and not party to the business.  Hindi na dapat makipag-kumpetensya ang gobyerno sa negosyo ng pribadong pamayanan. 

Despite its flaws, the IPRA provides legal bases of many actions the IPs are doing in the protection of their rights i.e. Right to Ancestral Domain, Right to Cultural Integrity, Right to Self-Governance and Empowerment, and Social Justice & Human Rights.  Imagine protecting your ancestral lands with unseen walls?  Imagine decongesting anglo-saxon influenced courts with cases that cannot be decided speedily if filed anyway?  Imagine deciding collectively so that accountability is not shouldered only by one person?  Imagine not having had to bow down and be perpetually subservient to all forms of domination?

Oh, the Pork Barrel.  Though it was not mentioned, it shone like lard in the gowns and cars.  It was also exciting to note too, that behind those glam and false eyelashes – are actually nothing. 

* * * * * *

Aveen Acuña-Gulo

Cotabato City

22 July 2013

Strengthening Traditional Systems of Justice and Governance

Message of Support

Greetings of Peace and Solidarity to all the participants and guests of this Local Peace Forum. 

Around two weeks ago, a group of around thirty (30) Indigenous Peoples coming from the Teduray, Lambangian, Dulangan Manobo and Higaonon Tribes visited the Timuay Justice Hall in Kansad Gadung in Mt Fakal.  It was an exposure trip as part of a series of trainings on IP Self-Governance.  A first timer would take a minimum of nine (9) hours on foot to reach this Teduray-Lambangian Seat of Governance 1200 meters above sea level. 

Nestled at the foot of a dense forest, the Timuay Justice Hall (also called Malacanang of the IPs so that others can also picture it out) is the main building in a cluster of wooden structures built by the Tedurays themselves from 1990-2010.  It is not in any way similar to our image of a governance capital where concrete is the conventional building material; but it is the spirit of a struggling but happy people, both living and gone ahead, that makes it sturdy and full of energy.  

As we gather here, two more groups of trainees had just visited the eastern part of Mindanao for an exposure trip to the ancestral lands of ComVal Province.  They went there to see how, despite the constraints of the law, their fellow IPs – Mansaka, Mandaya, Manobo, Dibabawon, Mangguangan and Kagan -- with the unrelentless facilitation of the NCIP Provincial Office and informed support from their provincial government, were able to get their Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs) after long, arduous years of follow up. 

They were also there to see how the six (6) tribes made themselves knowledgeable and confident enough to negotiate with banana, mining and logging companies as co-equals in managing resources that are inside the ancestral domain. Some of them can even say 'no', and present sustainable options.

From there the group proceeded to Pamulaan, or what we commonly know as IP University in Mintal, Davao City.  They went to see how education using indigenous knowledge, skills and practices (IKSPs) are being maximized to revive leadership structures that have survived thousands of years.  They saw how these IKSPs will fortify themselves in facing up and adjusting to the seemingly insurmountable influence of external governance structures.       

In Pamulaan they will try to see how their hunger for education can be responded to by duty holders, inasmuch as their request for more schools, and not plantations, always surfaces prominently in many community consultations.  While many wished to send their children to school there, they too wish that their children would not have to suffer being separated from their families while striving to get a good education. 

From Pamulaan they proceeded to Don Bosco in Makilala, North Cotabato, to see how people there were able to free themselves from the slavery of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and weed killers by going back to how their ancestors produced food for thousands of years.   With biodynamic farming they will see how harnessing the energies of the soil, sun, wind and stars can actually provide their food and health needs and still be commercially viable with their dignity intact.

Being able to eat food that are grown without being dependent on destructive chemical inputs; being able to settle conflicts so that the regular courts won’t be congested; being able to harness the forest and its bounty the way our ancestors did for thousands of years; being able to resuscitate a dying culture back to life – these are just some of the elements that will determine the direction that the Lumads in the ARMM will take in these challenging times.

And because you know where you are going, I have faith deep in my heart that the Teduray, Lambangian, Dulangan Manobo and Higaonon are already exercising their Right to Self Determination.  We hope to be of help to you in the little victories you gain along the way; and in the same breadth that it will also be our happiness when the time comes that you tell us you are ready to run things on your own.     

On behalf of our operating partners – the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG), Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), and Development Consultants (DEVCON) – let me extend our heartfelt congratulations to Lumad Development Center Incorporated (LDCI) for initiating to revive and strengthen your traditional systems of justice and governance; and also to the European Commission (EC) and the Catholic Committee Against Hunger and For Development (CCFD) for supporting this initiative.  

To the generations of yore, to the generation of today, and to the generations of tomorrow, I say Meuyag!

Aveen Acuña-Gulo, IPDEV

Local Peace Forum

Tribal Hall, Nuro, Upi, Maguindanao

20 June 2013

Culture of Disasture Strikes Again

Vans plying the Cotabato-Davao route are not fast-moving vehicles…they are low-flying coffins. Nobody's really given a damn about it. Until now.

Accounts abound as to how the vehicular accident involving a passenger van in Pikit, North Cotabato just this Friday really happened.  But that’s already the end of the story.  The real story lies in the series of events that led to this man-made disaster, another manifestation of the culture of disasture.

The following is just a short list.  Please feel free to add:

1)      Passenger vans have proliferated in the Cotabato-Davao route in the last five years.  This privately operated business compensated for the lack of a government public transport system. 

2)      Operating passenger vans is lucrative business.  With vague government regulations on van fares, operators are relatively free to dictate through their own cartels on how much the public should be paying. 

3)      Because nobody checks on the carrying capacity of passenger vans, four people are squeezed on a row designed for three, plus extension seats are added.

4)      The hazy distinction between passenger vans and vans for hire complicate the competition for passengers and space on the road.

5)      The lucrative nature of this unregulated business also provides a lucrative source of income for anybody who can provide space for van terminals that are also unregulated.

6)      This lucrative nature also extends to traffic enforcers who instead of checking operators’ licenses, road safety, speeds and number of passengers inside the van, are establishing rapport with operators and drivers with pansigarilyo and other forms of bribery.

7)      Drug tests for van drivers are non-existent with the unregulated nature of the business; thus providing a free flow of the drug route.

8)      With media so engrossed with the peace process, politics and gossip (election season notwithstanding), little space is left for road safety and other seemingly irrelevant issues which if summed up occupies a much bigger space than the first two P’s.

9)      What’s with field trips that pump people’s adrenaline up? An eyewitness related that the young people inside this particular van were jeering and giving their thumbs down sign after overtaking other vehicles.  Shouldn’t schools also give safety briefings to the drivers and the students before letting them go on and risk their lives with great abandon?  

10)   Where are the parents?  I know we are all at the height of grieving and say it’s not a time to blame.  Forgive me this early if you wish.  Again some sense has to be knocked into our comfort zones for us to wake up.  Have we as parents really inculcated in the minds of our children how to stay safe on the road?  The concepts of Yin-Yang?  How too much excitement and euphoria usually brings in the equivalent intensity of negative energies?  That they too, have the right to tell the driver to drive carefully?

Previous vehicular accidents should have already pierced the collective consciousness of the public. I still wonder if this Pikit incident would really wake us all up.  But the culture of disasture continues.  (We are not yet talking about the devil drivers plying the squeakingly new concrete highway from Cotabato to Lebak.  Accounts say that recent vehicular accident-related deaths in the area were just negotiated by the operators).

It is enraging to think that while government is so inept in addressing this issue, we citizens have not done enough as well. 

Cotabato City

1 March 2013

##

Aveen Acuña-Gulo wrote a column “The Voice” for the Mindanao Cross from 1991-2006. She likes to challenge stereotypes.  “Don’t worry about my opinions,” she says.  “It won’t make a dent to the conventional."  

She also drives.  "I'd like to think that it takes basic intelligence to know the rules of driving and safety on the road.  You just can't make any vehicle run without knowing these things,” she said.