The desire for an education, the impact of resource extraction and remuneration, and the need for social bridges between IP upland youth and university youth in the lowlands were major concerns that emerged during the Bentela daw Sayuda activity last October 2010.

From 1 to 3 October, 20 IP youth from the Pulangiyen community in Bukidnon briefly visited their counterparts in the Agusanon-Manobo community in Agusan del Sur and the Mamanwa community in Surigao del Norte. Eleven volunteers from the Mindanaw Tripartite Youth Core (MTYC), an ESSC partner, also joined the activity.

The activity also allowed the Pulangiyen youth to briefly engage with college students from two established universities in Butuan City: the Father Saturnino Urios University run by the Diocese of Butuan, and St Paul University, one of the oldest schools in the Surigao area.

Engaging with university college students in Butuan City

One of the main objectives of the project is to build social bridges among Mindanao youth and this includes bridging the gap between youth who are in universities and youth in the uplands. Often, development processes that involve the inclusion and integration of the youth sector tend to focus mainly on university-based youth. Youth in the uplands, especially those from IP communities, are overlooked as they are subsumed generally in the IP sector or agricultural sector.

The brief visit provided an opportunity for the youth groups to interact and their experiences shared. For many of the university-based youth, this was their first time to meet and engage with IP youth and vice-versa. The IP youth introduced themselves, where they come from, their culture, and their concerns as IP youth and as youth of Mindanao. The university-based youth asked questions and also responded to queries in relation to the education and courses they are taking and what their plans are as youth of Mindanao.

Engaging with the Agusanon-Manobo youth

Half of the visiting group made their way to Barangay San Toribio in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, where the Agusanon-Manobo community lives. At that time, 50 students from an Indigenous Peoples high school from a nearby barangay were also staying with the community for a 15-day exposure and immersion.

The host Agusanon-Manobo community welcomed the participants with a ritual and communal dinner and had a prepared program the next day for the four groups of youth to engage and learn a bit about each other.

For the Manobo youth, the IP high school students, the Pulangiyen youth and the MTYC youth volunteers, the half-day program provided a venue for simple games and activities, sharing of dances from each of the group, and the singing of songs about their tribes and the many challenges that IPs face such as being marginalized, their education needs, and their environmental concerns.

Particularly for the Agusanon-Manobo and the Pulangiyen youth, they shared a common challenge in their desire for an education despite the remoteness of their community from public schools. As in Bendum, San Toribio is about an hour's walk from the nearest public elementary school and small children have to start walking very early in the morning to get to the school in time. Lucy Rico, a member of the Agusanon-Manobo shared that it is her dream that a daycare center be established in their community so that small children need not walk very far and be safe from any danger along the way.

Message from Man Dagasi

Man Dagasi, the community's former tribal chieftain and the oldest among the Agusanon-Manobo community, spoke to the youth before him, sharing with them a brief history about the tribes in Agusan and Bukidnon and how they engaged in conversations in the past and every one knew each other.

Man Dagasi shared this to express his joy in the activity where youth from different tribes, even the Muslim youth, were able to meet, engage, and play. He said that disagreements across various tribes occur often occur because they never met and never engaged in healthy, fun, and peaceful discussions in the past.

He challenged all the youth present, especially the students, to study well given the opportunity they have to be in school. In engaging with people who are not lumad, he urged them to be proud of their heritage and not be ashamed that they are IPs. He hopes that the IP youth are able to show the richness and goodness of their tribe.

Engaging with the Mamanwa youth

There are different Mamanwa communities in the Surigao area and the visit focused on a small community in Barangay Tiltilan-Palilihan in Higaquit, Surigao del Norte, where the other half of the Bentela daw Sayuda participants went and where they were welcomed with a ritual.

The following day, a short program of games and activities was held. The Mamanwa community and the visiting Pulangiyen also showed their tribes' dances. However, the visiting youth felt sad when they realized that many of the Mamanwa youth no longer practice their tradition and know less about their culture. They still speak the language but in terms of dances and old traditions, these are not practiced anymore by the Mamanwa youth. In fact, the parents were the ones who danced during the community activity.

The participants were also paired to live and sleep over in some of the households to give an opportunity for deepened conversations and engagement with the Mamanwa community. It was realized though that the Mamanwa were not very open to sharing their concerns. They spoke of some of their dreams in terms of hoping to get money to purchase things that they need at home.

Brief visit to the Mamanwa community in Claver

A smaller group of participants visited the Mamanwa community directly affected by the mining activities in Claver. The entire group also did a drive-through in the mining site.

Recently, this Mamanwa community made headlines when the Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) paid a total of PhP 72.5 million in 2009 for royalty payments the group was entitled to under the Philippine Mining Act and the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act.

The mining firm operates in the Mamanwa community's ancestral domain and they are entitled to a 1% royalty or share of the gross production or output. In February 2009, PhP 51.5 million was paid, representing the 1% royalty from July 2006 to December 2007. In December 2009, TMC paid an additional PhP 21 million to the lumad association (AMPANTRIMTU) representing the 1% royalty for 2008.

This has resulted in dividing the community as accusations of misrepresentation emerged and connivance with officials of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the government agency tasked to facilitate the process. Last October, the regional trial court in Butuan City ordered that the funds be frozen pending resolution of the complaints filed by another lumad group before the Ombudsman against officials of the NCIP and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau. There is now an ongoing investigation in Congress as to NCIP's role in the fund allocation and disbursement, and the Mamanwa groups are contesting the leadership of the lumad association that received the funds.

The visiting group met with NCIP local officials briefly and observed a meeting of the Mamanwa who were discussing issues about royalties. The meeting did not end very well and the visiting group observed that there was lack of facilitation and listening amongst the members during the meeting.

What was gained

Given these brief slices of learning and sharing with other IP youth and their communities, the Bentela daw Sayuda program is providing a critical and needed venue to gain a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities that IP youth in Mindanao are faced with. And that this understanding will translate to a better sharing of their needs and concerns, demanding the appropriate response from broader Philippine society.