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Gov't Procedures Viewed by Mindanao Indigenous Communities as Pro-Mining
By Ellen Red

Continued from page 1

Datu Migketay Saway, a Talaandig tribal leader in the province of Bukidnon, said in his dialect, "This (Free and Prior Informed Consent) is an instrument that would secure the interests of the foreigners to our society."

"This (Free and Prior Informed Consent) is facilitative of pangayaw," he said.

Pangayaw, Datu Saway said, means the enslavement of the tribes.

He said that the tribes, particularly in Mindanao, have been enslaved by the religious groups, politicians, corporations, military, and rebel groups.

Datu Saway said that these religious groups, politicians, corporations, military, and rebel groups each have organized their own tribal leaders.

"In the Free and Prior Informed Consent process, who among these organized tribal leaders are being referred to?" Datu Saway asked.

"The number of tribal leaders who are victims of pangayaw exceeds that of the tribal leaders who are free," he said.

Datu Fernando Mudai, a Subanon tribal leader in Zamboanga del Norte, said that the Free and Prior Informed Consent process is not culturally appropriate to the tribes in Mindanao, specially the Subanon.

"When the area affected covers only a portion of the ancestral domain, only the ICCs/IPs (Indigenous Cultural Communities/ Indigenous Peoples) in such portion shall be involved in the FPIC (Free and Prior Informed Consent) process, or in special cases, whose consent shall be validated," the guidelines provide.

The above-mentioned provision, Datu Mudai said, is culturally inappropriate.

"What if the portion of the ancestral domain applied for mining, for example, is the hunting area of the tribe and only the wild animals, wild pigs live there? Who should give the Free and Prior Informed Consent? The wild pigs?" Datu Mudai asked.