IN SOME 90 countries, according to the United Nations, there are an estimated 370 million indigenous peoples. The Philippines alone consists of a large number of indigenous ethnic groups. They are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Philippines.
Recent statistics show that there are more than 100 highland tribal groups constituting approximately three percent of the Philippine population. Practicing unique traditions, they retain social, cultural, economic, and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live.
Sadly, indigenous peoples have not been accorded the attention they deserve in national development processes. They in fact constitute 15 percent of the world’s poor and about one third of the 900 million extremely poor rural people. Historical injustices have all too often resulted in exclusion and poverty.
In fact, they are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, with many of them struggling to remain on their lands and retain the right to their natural resources, while others have long since been removed from their lands, denied their languages and traditional ways.
Furthermore, power structures continue to create obstacles to indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination.
However, indigenous peoples have a central interest in development and can act as powerful agents of progress because of their traditional knowledge systems on natural resource management which have sustained some of the world’s more intact, diverse ecosystems up to the present.
But for them to contribute to our common future, we must secure their rights. Let us work even harder to empower them and support their aspirations.
By virtue of Proclamation No. 1906 signed on Oct. 5, 2009 by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, October is National Indigenous Peoples Month. The observance highlights Philippine indigenous peoples’ rights and the preservation of indigenous cultural communities as part of the life of the nation.
Let us recognize and celebrate the valuable and distinctive identities of indigenous peoples.
