Jonathan P.

Manuales
EE3-1
2018-00533

Refection Paper “Indigenous People and Covid-19; And Mukha sa Panahon ng

Pandemya”

The world is constantly changing anywhere from advancements in technology to changes in the
environment. With all these developments, there are also some negative effects. One of the major
affected group of this changes are the Indigenous People or IP. Some powerful businessman and
private groups are stealing their land to build establishment and earn profit without considering
its effect to the IPs community and its livelihood. Also, pandemic crisis is affected the IP by
restrictions and series of lockdown that prohibited them for going to urban areas and sell their
goods and products.

The University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP) conducted a webinar entitled “Indigenous

People and Covid-19; And Mukha sa Panahon ng Pandemya” was very helpful to educated young
people and student to real situation of Indigenous People (IP) and its affected livelihood because
of negligence of people, Covid-19 Pandemic, and lack of financial and moral support. Amend the
conflict of government and some other parties in the rural area where the IP lived, there are
several group that manage to helped and established programs for IPs community. One of these
implemented programs by University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP), Southern Mindanao
Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development Consortium
(SMAARRDEC) and DOST-PCAARRD is Amoma ug Giya Alang sa Kahamugaway (AGAK). According
to USeP website, the main function of AGAK is to assist IP communities and small farmers in
marketing their products at reasonable price by eliminating middlemen in the supply chain. Its
engagement includes both industry (for marketing) and government (for technical training and
funding assistance). Information, education and communication (IEC) reading materials
translated to local beneficiaries’ language are also among its aims such that knowledge gained
from the training and activities is maximized and sustained among users. This help IP community
to gain profit at the same time educating their self of the sustainable and effective system.

Overall, the webinar is tackled problems, and solutions by implementing programs that help IP
communities to survive in this currents state. All of the speakers collaborated and continuously
serving the IP by implementing programs, and educating the future generation to constantly
innovating and helping.

As a future engineer, this webinar challenged me to become more resilience and creative in
doing programs that may help people, implementing acceptable rules and regulation, and be fair
to all races and nationalities.