04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly indigenous cultural communities within the framework of national unity and development."[71] The incorporation also violates the Constitutional guarantee that the "State, subject to the provisions of this Constitution and national development policies and programs, shall protect the rights of indigenous cultural minorities to their ancestral lands to ensure their economic, social, and cultural well-being." [72] These Constitutional guarantees, as implemented in the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997, grant the Lumads "the right to participate fully, if they so chose, at all levels of decision-making in matters which may affect their rights, lives and destinies."[73] Since the Executive branch kept the MOA-AD confidential until its publication in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on 4 August 2008, the day before its scheduled signing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, there could have been no participation by the 18 Lumad groups of Mindanao in their incorporation into the Bangsamoro. This alone shows that the Executive branch did not consult, much less secure the consent, of the Lumads on their rights, lives and destinies under the MOA-AD. In fact, representatives of the 18 Lumad groups met in Cagayan de Oro City and announced on 27 August 2008, through their convenor Timuay Nanding Mudai, that "we cannot accept that we are part of the Bangsamoro."[74] The incorporation of the Lumads, and their ancestral domains, into the Bangsamoro violates the Constitutional and legislative guarantees recognizing and protecting the Lumads' distinct cultural identities as well as their ancestral domains. The violation of these guarantees makes the MOA-AD patently unconstitutional. The incorporation of the Lumads, and their ancestral domains, into the Bangsamoro without the Lumads' knowledge and consent also violates Article 8 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.[75] Section 8 of the Declaration states: Article 8. 1. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture. 2. States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for: (a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities; (b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources; (c) Any form of forced population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights; (d) Any form of forced assimilation or integration; (e) Any form of propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination directed against them. (Emphasis supplied) The provisions of Article 8 were designed to prevent cultural genocide of indigenous peoples. This will happen if the Lumads are identified from birth as Bangsamoros and their ancestral domains are absorbed into the ancestral domain of elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 100/203