The Inner Voices of the Changing Time: The Journey of the Mangyan Elders in

Governance Practices
Gina Sy-Luna, Ed.D.
Institute of Arts and Sciences
Far Eastern University

Keywords: indigenous leadership, local perspective, governance practices, state system

ABSTRACT

Significantly, literature affirms the success of any organization depends mainly on

the quality of its leadership. However, most of the studies conducted about local
leadership primarily used different theories. These theories are equally developed and
validated from the lens of unfamiliar perspectives. Hence, if these prevailing theories
are applied to guide leaders, such studies would either be irrelevant or typically help to
rectify the wrong problem (Von Glinow & Teagarden, 2009). It is therefore relevant to
recognize and begin to accommodate one's indigenous tradition practices to highlight
their potential in predicting and interpreting leadership practices in a local context.
Surprisingly, researches pay little attention to the impact of the Indigenous Elders
in the indigenous community governance practice. More so, little reliable data are
available on the indigenous elders and their contributions in the political practice.
Buendia et al. (2006) also observed this shortage of literature that deals with indigenous
governance in the Philippines even if it is notably worldwide that the political system
among indigenous communities has survived the 21st century.
Drawing from two methodological frameworks, the indigenous knowledge and
re-storying as the based approaches to this narrative research, the prime focus of this
study is to investigate on the fundamental values and potential relevance of the
Mangyan Indigenous Elders in sustaining their traditional political system, despite the
changing times and complex situations in their governance practices, due to the direct
interface of the state system.