GUIDE
Foundation requested for the assistance of the CO Multiversity in training
two community organizers for indigenous communities. Indigenous communities
security and cultural identity are being seriously threatened by the rampant
granting of Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMAs) with little
apparent concern for how the local IP populace will be affected.
The
training of two organizers for GUIDE, in the Mandaya indigenous community in
Tigbawan, Baganga, Davao Oriental
was disrupted during the
summer of 1999. The kidnapping
of a high ranking military officer by the National People’s Army, which
supposedly brought the official to the hinterlands close to the Mandaya
community ,led to the increase of
military operations in the area.
The trainors and organizers met the community at
an assembly to make arrangements
to continue preparations to
mobilize for the
ancestral domain claim, even if the COM team was not based full time in the
community. In the first half of the year 2000, the training was resumed for
the two organizers.
During
this period, the members of the community were able to organize and
participate in boundary delineation for the ancestral claim. These
activities included a Mapping Workshop, in coordination with PAFID Mindanao,
wherein four community leaders
were taught how to use the GPS instrument in mapping ancestral domain claim.
Committees were likewise established to organize mapping activities
while logistical resources were mobilized from the local government.
This
process culminated in the
submission of the ancestral domain claim application of the local
organization in the regional office in Mati, Davao Oriental of the National
Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP). Five leaders hiked for several hours
with the organizing team to the main town .
The
NGO PAFID in Mindanao committed to conduct the actual mapping and the CO
Multiversity is still tasked to organize this process with the community.
However, due to security reasons the mapping is still suspended.
Meanwhile,
the GUIDE Foundation met difficulties to sustain its operations and
the partnership had to be terminated. As earlier mentioned, despite
this situation, the CO Multiversity, together with the PAFID are committed
to continue the conduct of mapping when the security situation
is improved.
Two
organizers completed the basic CO training course, of whom one is from the
Higaun-on indigenous community, while the second was engaged in organizing
with Manobos. The first organizer has shown potentials for trainor
potentials while the second one resigned for health reasons.