The President’s plan is designed to protect indigenous peoples in the highlands from being exploited by communist rebels
President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to develop ancestral domain lands
with the help of investors would protect the indigenous peoples from
being exploited and influenced by communist rebels, Malacañang assured
on Saturday.
Defending the idea, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said “all
of the data” show that the New People’s Army (NPA) was exploiting the
Lumad by turning them into insurgents.
Mr. Duterte was aware that the biggest problem that the Lumad face was poverty, Roque said.
“That is why (the President) said we could allow investors to enter
(ancestral domain lands) so that there would be jobs, and hunger would
be reduced in Lumad communities,” he said in a press briefing in Ilocos
Norte.
“If the number of jobs increases in Lumad communities, the NPA’s
influence over them would wane. This means the NPA would no longer
forcibly take them and turn them into fighters,” he added.
Mr. Duterte had earlier threatened to bomb Lumad schools for
supposedly spreading subversive ideas and teaching students to rebel
against the government.
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Risk of displacement
As for concerns that the Lumad communities run the risk of being
displaced if investors were allowed to develop their ancestral lands,
Roque said there were laws covering ancestral domains.
He said the plight of the Lumad had attained some urgency because of
the assertion of the UN special rapporteur on indigenous communities
that the government was violating their rights.
The President broached the idea of developing ancestral domain lands
with the help of investors at a summit of indigenous peoples’ leaders on
Thursday in Davao City.
During the event, he also vowed to provide P100 million to fund agriculture development in Lumad areas.
