disproportionate disadvantage.
Personal, family and community security
becomes a demanding concern on top of their productive and reproductive
roles. The overlapping issues of regional autonomy, insurgency, peace,
development and human rights in Mindanao, for example, is continuously
causing conflicts between the private and the state sectors and various armed
groups impacting on the civil society, including indigenous peoples.
The excerpted story below partially describes experiences of indigenous women
growing-up in conflict-ridden areas in Mindanao.
“Our place is beautiful, the forest is green, and we know that mining
companies have long wanted to get their hands on it.” Manobo woman
leader Josephine Pagalan11, 36, of Surigao del Sur, said simply of her
ancestral lands in Andap Valley Complex in Surigao del Sur.
Pagalan, who is from Diatagon village, Lianga, learned that she was being
sought by paramilitary groups just hours before talking to Bulatlat12.“I’ve
been so long in the organization but it’s only today, on March 5,” that I am
harassed and threatened, Pagalan said. She learned that the Bagani
Force13 have been conducting surveillance at her home, looking for her.
Pagalan, a mother of four, is a council member of the intermunicipal
organization Malahutayong Pakigbisog alang sa Sumusunod (Mapasu),
and the Lumad group Kasalo in the Caraga region.
Pagalan recalled that even as a child, she had experienced repeated
evacuations. This continues up to now that she has her own children.
“We have repeatedly evacuated because of the human rights violations,
the abductions, the killings, the encampment in our homes and schools,”
she said.
“It has been part of our life to evacuate, but we do it to show we are
united, not just because we are scared, but as a form of protest, because
they are violating our rights, and by way of fighting for our ancestral
lands… We became active, because of our experience, because of the
militarization,” said Pagalan.
She was able to study only up to Grade 3, already something of a feat in
11
Josephine
is
one
among
the
estimated
3000
evacuees
from
Surigao
del
Sur
on
the
wake
of
the
brutal
murder
of
ALCADEV
Executive
Director
Emerito
Samarca,
Manobo
leader
Dionel
Campos,
and
Datu
Juvello
Sinzo
in
front
of
the
whole
community
in
September
1,
2015
by
members
of
the
Bagani
Force.
See
http://www.karapatan.org/ALCADEV+Executive+Director%2C+Two+Lumads+killed+by+AFP+units+a
nd+its+paramilitary+group.
12
An
on-‐line
media
service,
bulatlat.com.
13
Bagani
Force
–
a
Lumad
paramilitary
group
suspected
in
various
human
rights
violations,
including
last
year’s
killing
of
Mapasu
leader
Henry
Alameda
of
San
Isidro
village,
Lianga.
10