Sunday, February 4, 2018

#Philippines - Palace defends investors’ entry into Lumad land


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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https://12go.asia/?z=581915
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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.