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Finding Home
By Ellen Red

Continued from page 1

The executive director of Green Mindanao added that there maybe about 100 families surviving like in the ancient ways of living at the mountainous portion of Carrascal, Surigao del Sur and Claver, Surigao del Norte gathering rattan, wild orchids, plants, flowers; planting camote (sweet potato), banana, cassava, and hunting wild animals.

He added that in the town of Gigaguit, Surigao del Norte, a small band of Mamanwa of about 30 families still lives in caves.

Large-scale mining companies such as Taganito Mining Corporation and Queensland Nickel, Inc. are operating in the towns near the border of the two provinces: Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur.

About 30 Mamanwa families reside at the resettlement area in Mabahin, under the leadership of Datu Montenegro.

The sea, the mountains in the northeastern part of Mindanao were once the home of the Mamanwa, Datu Montenegro explained.

Upon the arrival of the Spanish colonizers, two or three hundred years ago, he said that the Mamanwa retreated to the mountains.

He added that their forefathers live a nomadic way of life.

Before, he said when a member of the band gets sick, the whole band would move to another area to prevent further sickness of the band.

Today, for the small band in barangay Mabahin, even a death of a band member will not convince the whole band to move to another area.

In mid-August this year, this writer observed that despite the death (cause still unknown) of a band member in barangay Mabahin, the whole band did not move to another area.

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