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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech and Digital News
CAPAS, Tarlac, November 16, 2024 (SDN) — Imagine Indigenous Peoples (IPs) walking down mountains for over an hour “only” to get medical checkup and medicines, a bag of rice, bottled water, and T-shirts.
And, on the side, have a chance to meet with what the IPs have dubbed “Datu Tagapagtanggol” (Prince Defender).
That’s not what lowlanders usually do. For the necessities in life, government services, and resources are abundant and easily available in the lowlands: think cities and other urban jungle communities. So, the term “only” is more than what it means literally. To them, “only” could be a matter of life and death. Or at least a brief respite from struggling every day, ekking out a living to put food on the table. And some medicines, too.
But for many of the nearly 10 million-strong IPs across the country who live in the mountains, in remote difficult-to-reach communities, having the chance to get some of life’s basic needs, especially for free, an hour-long trek along stony roads, muddy paths, and dangerous rivers is something they have to live and put up with.
It’s either that or not get anything at all. A party-list, No. 99 in the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) 157 party-list aspirants for seats in the House of Representatives, made it easy for them, at least for today.
Against this background, to this end, the Pinoy Ako Party-list showed up, led by one of its 10 nominees, lawyer Gil A. Valera, the Datu Tagapagtanggol, himself an Itneg IP of Abra, in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), located in the northern-central section of Luzon. The Philippines is made up of three main islands, Luzon, the biggest, and the Visayas and Mindanao.
Read: Comelec Releases Certified List of Party-List Groups & their Nominees for May 2025 National & Local Elections
Nominee Valera explains Pinoy Ako’s objectives for IPs in Congress
Accompanied by a select group of Metro Manila-based reporters, Pinoy Ako conducted a medical mission and distribution of rice bags, bottled water, and T-shirts, motoring to the Covered Court of Barangay Bueno. The party-list with some of its officials traveled for over three hours in a convoy of truckloads of goods for the Aetas, the original people of the Philippines, formerly living in the lowlands, but driven and pushed up the mountains when the Spanish conquistadors and others came to put a reign of terror in the country.
More than 300 Aetas, majority of them from this village’s Sitio Hot Spring, old men, women, adults, kids, and toddlers tagged along came rolling down the mountains of Capas, including mothers with infants, to welcome the “strangers” bringing good tidings.
When reporters arrived at the Covered Court past 9 a.m., the venue for the day’s activities was still bare, only Aeta kids playing basketball. The main group from Pinoy Ako which was bringing the medicines and food packs missed the way to the venue, already climbing the mountains when they noticed they got lost.
But they came just in time as the families of the Aetas, including their oldest, Loretta Candoli, 81 years old, started streaming in. In front of the Covered Court, there is a house that has in its front yard a tree which the owner said bears “Miracle Fruit”. The owner said its fruit, just smaller than a regular basketball, is a “cure” for cancer and other illnesses.
The IPs started crowding the table for the medical consultation with the bags of rice and plastic bags of T-shirts behind, awaiting distribution. Attendees signed the attendance sheets while those not able to read and write were assisted by their companions.
Valera took the microphone, explaining to the Aeta people gathered around about Pinoy Ako’s advocacies, which is to help uplift the life of the millions of IPs across the country, build an Indigenous Peoples’ Bank, an Indigenous Peoples’ University, work for the titling of their lands, send them to school, provide health services, try and get bigger percentage of the income from their lands being used for mining, among others.
“Our priority,” he says time and again, “is the Indigenous Peoples.” Valera, also a CPA, a staunch advocate of the rights of the indigenous communities, has been doing legal work gratis for the law-challenged tribal members, including for the 13 Moro tribes, or the country’s Muslims. He pointed out Pinoy Ako’s second advocacy is for the welfare of the “obreros” (construction workers), who like the IPs are also being exploited.
He said the IPs are the most marginalized communities in the country — they are not provided many things in life by the government — politicians and businessmen — like the lowlanders. IPs’ access to health, education, and other government services are from slim to none.
So. it’s not hard to see that Pinoy Ako’s reason for being are the IPs and the “obreros” in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. Valera said their party-list organization will take the cudgel for the IPs in Congress, given the opportunity.
“We are trying to unite the 10 million IPs in the country to have their representation through the party-list system,” he emphasizes. “The IPs are kind, but they are not given attention.”
CADTs, increased shares from mining, legal work for IPs, etc.
At the Covered Court here, Valera personally spoke with the Aeta people, telling them if they encounter any problem, especially concerning their ownership of their lands, he can be contacted through text message. He handed out his Business Cards to the Aetas, saying the lands of the IPs are his foremost service.
He urged his fellow IPs to inform their family members that Pinoy Ako Party-list is ready to assist them in whatever problems they have.
In an interview with the reporters, the lawyer said if the nominees of Pinoy Ako get seats in Congress through the May 12, 2024, National and Local Elections (NLE), they will push for the increase in the share of IPs from the mining of their lands from three percent to 20 percent.
He said they also want to speed up the distribution of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs) because it is normally — or unusually — taking three long years for the IPs to secure. Pinoy Ako also counts among its advocacies a stronger law against land grabbing and land grabbers.
The medical mission was also participated by an Aeta councilor, Victor Valantin, a two-termer in the Municipal Council of Capas. He said the activity is a big help to the IPs as it provide even a short respite from their daiily struggles.
Pinoy Ako (Pinoy para sa Adhikain ng mga Katutubo at Obrero) enlisted four physicians for the medical mission, who made Hippocrates proud with their services for the IPs. The medical team included Dr. Sharina M. Samonte, Dr. Particia O. Martinez, Dr. Roxanne Nicole J. Trillanes, and Dr. Ana Carmina Carreon. (♡)