(Eagle News)– If allowed entry in their ancestral homelands, investors can help improve the lives of lumads.
In explaining President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposal, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said investors could, for one, help provide the indigenous people with the jobs that will provide them with their daily necessities.
“Kaya naman sinabi niya: ‘Baka mamaya papasukin natin nga ‘yung mga namumuhunan na magkaroon ng trabaho at mabawasan ang pagkagutom diyan sa mga lumad communities,’” he said, while recognizing at the same time the laws on ancestral domains.
He could be referring to the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997, which provides for state protection of the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands.
According to Roque, with employment in lumad communities, “mababawasan na rin iyong impluwensiya ng (New People’s Army).”
“At sa ganoon po, hindi na sapilitan na kukunin ng mga NPA iyong mga lumads at gagawing mga mandirigma,” he said.
But in a statement, Sandugo, which claims to represent lumads, said they would “continue to resist the intrusion of foreign investors and projects and oppose US-Duterte’s charter change.”
“Taking us, the national minorities away, from our lands is taking away our identity and our existence – thus will lead to our genocide,” the group’s co-chairperson Datu Jerome Succor Aba said.