#dev108

Philippine’s IPs and Heritage Protection As economic necessity and a climate crisis leave no part of the world untouched, countries around the world are reframing their standards for growth. One way to go at it is through the not-so-new concept of heritage. It has been a global exercise where states protect unique features of their cultural and natural environment, and regard them as assets to be projected globally. Assisting in the protection of claims to land, resources, and intellectual property, I propose that this disposition can help our archipelagic, multicultural country cultivate better livelihoods especially for marginalized groups such as the IPs.

IPs in the Philippines have been struggling to sustain their heritage since the 1980s. When the government began to destroy their land, their culture went with it as well. These actions have been passable under the law and now are even enabled by President Duterte’s violent remarks against their communities. The Regalian Doctrine, which holds the State as the sole owner of lands, continues to reign in our constitution, allowing for capitalistic ventures to be prioritized over CADT applications that protect the IP’s rights to their land.

If CADTs are given, the Lumad can reside in their homes and continue their relationships with the environment, but for the past 20 years, our government has failed to make moves for indigenous heritage.  Some countries have protected their own assets for recognition and have even garnered revenue and prestige from what they are naturally adept with. Such is the tree resin from Amazonian tribes and the nuts from Brazil. In both examples, protected land has been the main driver of the produce quality. With that priority, livelihood can be ensured. Instead, our path has been geared toward capitalist development that destroys nature. For example, instead of elevating the non-timber products and agricultural goods harvested by the IPs, mining in Zamboanga Peninsula and legal approval of the Kaliwa Dam were the chosen paths to aid development.

The lone stronghold left defending IP rights is their Free, Prior and Informed Consent- a right to be consulted before any development venture takes place in their ancestral domain. Essentially, the FPIC is a political wager for IPs to suggest whether or not development should take place. However, to institutions, this is seen simply as a yes or no answer easily invalidated vis-a-vis the given development path. Evaluations for past implementations all indicated failure- that there was not enough institutional capacity to enforce and assist such a wager. With that, IPs deliberately lose all means of political negotiation and protection against legislations like the Regalian Doctrine.

If this country is to celebrate multicultural diversity, and even hold the SEA Games, then it should also stand alongside people in defending their land and rights. Instead, war is waged upon citizens for the profit of multinational companies. With this in mind, the Philippines has yet to unite towards the overall protection of livelihood rooted in context- in the name of protecting culture, environment and the people that have given it life.

Sources America, Oxfam (2013) Free Prior and Informed Consent in the Philippines: Regulations and Realities. Available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxfam-us/www/static/media/files/fpic-in-the-philippines-september-2013.pdf (Accessed: 7 October 2020).

Erasga, Dennis. (2008). Ancestral Domain Claim: The Case of the Indigenous People in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Asia-pacific Social Science Review. 8. 10.3860/apssr.v8i1.704. 

Displaced Drafts for Displaced Persons (2020). Available at: https://angeencomienda.livejournal.com/2600.html (Accessed: 7 October 2020).

Doyle, C. (2019). The Philippines Indigenous Peoples Rights Act and ILO Convention 169 on tribal and indigenous peoples: exploring synergies for rights realisation. The International Journal of Human Rights, 24(2-3), 170–190. doi:10.1080/13642987.2019.1679120 Mindanao, 3. (2020) Filipinas Heritage Library | The Lumad of Mindanao, Filipinaslibrary.org.ph. Available at: https://www.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/articles/the-lumad-of-mindanao/ (Accessed: 12 October 2020).

NATIONAL COMMISSION ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (1998 ) RULES AND REGULATIONS IMPLEMENTING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8371, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS “THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS ACT OF 1997” , Wipo.int. Available at: https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/ph/ph083en.pdf (Accessed: 7 October 2020).

First Fallacy

Masy: The government should really pay attention to controlling the cases of COVID-19 in the country! It is affecting people’s mental health and economic stability. The priority should be contact tracing and mass testing, not some beautification of Manila Bay that is just trying to distract us from the real problem here!

Denire: The beautification of Manila Bay is a project for the World Coastal Clean up day, don’t you think having beautiful to look at can help the masses’ mental health in general? Look at them appreciate the view!

Masy: But gathering them there together there is a public health hazard in the first place! Not to mention, dolomite sand has been proven to have adverse effects on aquatic life!

Denire: The military was there to assist the gathering, didn’t some people wanted quarantine lifted anyway to go back to their economic activities? The effects of dolomite has been proven false by the DENR itself!

Second Fallacy

State University students: The government’s priority should be its citizens health, well-being, and economic stability! Stop the unnecessary spending on things that we don’t need!

Fallacious Argument: But don’t you benefit from the government’s services anyway? You study for free because of the government! So stop saying anything against the institution that funds your education!

Third Fallacy

September 9, 2020 

It’s September 9 and all morning I could think of is the start of my online classes in Ateneo de Manila University. With my mug full of tea on my left hand and the mouse of my laptop on my right hand, I couldn’t wait to begin this. 

It was a good distraction for me because it feels like you’re stuck or frozen in time here in the Philippines. The COVID-19 pandemic is still here (damn!) in the country. Lockdowns and quarantines has been the norm since the month of March (I’ve lost track of time already so I don’t know when the lockdown started). 

DEV 108: Communication for Development 

This is one of my classes that I am taking for my first online semester, and we are instructed to create an online journal. Frankly, it’s been so long since I’ve written or typed one and I’m afraid that my words and grammar will be wrong or what my friends call my vocabulary as “wacky but at the same time, smart”. 

Anyways, I think keeping a journal would help my critical thinking -- one of the things that I am pretty horrible at. Writing my thoughts on to a piece of paper or even a digital notepad can be scary for me because I don’t like to read what I write sometimes. My ideas do tend to be very all over the place.

Having this journal would help me organize my thoughts, ideas and especially my emotions. I can be a very emotional and sensitive person sometimes. My loved ones have told me that I tend to shut down when I get offended or experienced negative events. I don’t say anything. I know it’s important to communicate with people but sometimes when you get hurt, you just wanna be alone. This thought made me realize that this doesn’t keep my emotions in check at all. Why am I mad? Why am I sad? Shutting down won’t help me or anyone else. 

It might be hard to have this habit of journaling but I just need to remind myself that this is not just going to help me, but also how I can communicate with other people better. 

Social Media Discourse and CDSC Across the Globe

We live online, now more than ever. The pandemic has forced us inside our homes and much of the world is now reflected solely through black mirrors. The use of social media has gravely increased since the quarantine and this online space only continues to grow in application, population, and possibilities.

One noticeable phenomena that has occurred is the rise of youth organizations. Since the quarantine began, a myriad of youth groups have emerged catering to various communities and advocacies and marred with good intentions. Buzz words such as "youth-run", "youth empowerment", and "spreading awareness" have been ubiquitous in all social media platforms. Although this may be indicative of the youth being more engaged with societal issues, what remains to be clear is the feasibility of organizing youth groups toward certain causes. It only takes a few individuals and a few clicks to get a Facebook page running. Eight months into the quarantine and a lot of these groups have already gone idle or are barely operational. This only proves Claudia Janssen Danyi and Vidhi Chaudhri's point that "maintaining and implementing effective social media communication, however, takes time, commitment, and knowledge (2020)." Sustaining a youth organization, especially those birthed online, require strategic communication.

In spite of a four-year reign of terror, President Rodrigo Duterte has managed to increase his trust rating to 91%. Unbelievable? Not quite, according to esteemed sociologist Walden Bello who cites Duterte's novel fascism as the culprit. Duterte has harnessed the personal resentment and fears of the masses and redirected these toward anyone he tags as 'drug pushers', 'dilawans', ‘communists’ or ‘terrorists’. Unfortunately, the terrorist tag has been attached to a bunch of kids who simply want to study — the students of the Lumad Bakwit Schools.

Sen. Cynthia Villar’s latest Twitter debacle prompted discussions on farmers, land conversion and the National Land Use Act—issues Villar herself has influence over as chairperson of the Senate Committees on Agriculture and Food and Environment and Natural Resources. 

NLUA has been pending in Congress for almost 20 years, even as President Duterte has made repeated calls to pass it. Villar doesn’t seem interested as it would directly affect her business venture - Vista Land. She has spoken openly about her misgivings on NLUA stating that the delineation of land according to use would undermine the authority of the local government to manage their own affairs. Even as the economics seem to be on her side, the welfare of farmers should not be sacrificed for the sake of economic development. Instead of being subject to constant berating, suffering from the conversion of their lands to gated subdivisions and the effect of rice import policies, greater support is needed from the government to boost our agricultural system and ensure the well-being of our farmers.

At times, Villar poses herself as a champion for the environment. However it has become clear that her position only seeks to serve her interests and the hypocrisy that comes with it.   She opposed reclamation plans in Manila Bay over flooding concerns in  Las Pinas and Paranaque, including a bill that will expedite ECC requests from EMB during national emergencies. Villar claims that by expediting requests, the validity and credibility of studies are compromised. While she makes a valid point, her reasons for opposing are not entirely for the sake of the environment, but because such a move compromises a wetland park in the waters of Las Pinas and Paranaque, which is a project by Villar SIPAG. If the name isn’t suggestive enough, a look at the Board of Trustees reveal a family affair - her husband, former senator and presidential candidate, Manny B. Villar Jr. serves as the Chairman, Cynthia as Managing Director, and their son Mark (current secretary of DPWH) as the Treasurer and Secretary.

Villar must know that the land and water that traverse throughout the country are interconnected. The conversion of fields into roads affects not just one community but all communities in more ways than Villar realizes. That is why it is imperative that we have a national perspective on the matter of land use and other resources to ensure that we, as a nation, can have sustainable development. 

“I’m so tired. I’ve been fighting this for the last 20 years. My God, you don’t know the hardship that I have encountered,”

“Twenty years is a long time to fight for this. Am I going to fight for this until I die, and ask my children to fight for this?”  Villar said. 

I tried to look at an alternative news source to see how different they angle their writing from the ones I usually go for... this is ABS CBN vs. PTV News on the latest Pulse Asia Survey results showing President Duterte with high approval rates this year.

Journal Entry #7: Think Twice With Social Media

When I encountered social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter as a child, I thought of them as my toys. They were better than those tamagotchi toys and game boy advance because I can communicate with other people, I can post pictures and I can see the lives of other people online. The internet was a new world, and social media was a vast ocean. 

After learning about the importance of critical thinking, I recently watched a TED video from Damon Brown who tells us “How to Choose Your News”. One way to practice critical thinking is to be selective in reading our news. Brown explains in his video that news became too broad; there were too many topics to cover. Mainstream news can influence and manipulate public trust through concealment and censorship but because of social media, information cannot be controlled like before. In a world where social media has enabled people to become their own news reporters, Brown proposes several tips: 

Get the official news instead of the middlemen. Better yet, follow media reporters and newscasters

Published articles are retouched and edited by editors who possibly did not experience the story, so find the raw reporting of media reporters

Check for the latest information in different times because sometimes, continuous coverage can have incorrect info or false accusations 

Read the news in multiple outlets because media bias is unavoidable 

Social media is scary to me because I was comfortable with it. Now, fake news has become a threat. The creation of trolls, fake accounts and falsified news accounts or articles has been increasing lately so it’s important to think twice with social media. I’m also scared because while all these tips from Damon Brown were very helpful to me, it wasn’t common sense to me. Fact-checking was never in my mind when reading information in social media. 

Brown later ends the video with a provoking line: with freedom comes responsibility, we should ensure that our information flow does not get flooded [by fake news, biased media and incorrect information].