A Narrative on the Stories of the Lumad in Bukidnon

Umayam: Rippling Out

A 14 year missionary work of Fr. Mateo “Mat” Sanchez, S.J. with the
Umayamnon Tribe in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon

One with Them

Ms. Richel “Petals” Petalcurin with the Higaonon Tribe in Sumilao, Bukidnon

The Plight of the Lumad

Jession Diwangan an Umayamnon shares on his life as an Umayamnon in the modern society

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for History 1 Readings in Philippine History for the 1st
Semester of the Academic Year 2018-2019

Presented by
Andre Robert L. Daba
AB Sociology – 1

Presented to
Ms. Rachel Daroy
History 1 Instructor

October 4, 2018
The People behind the Stories

Father Mateo Sanchez SJ

“Fr Mateo Sanchez, a beloved formator and missionary to the
Indigenous Peoples in Bukidnon, is celebrating 50 years of
priesthood this 2018. A Jesuit for 63 years, this saintly man is
revered among younger Jesuits, diocesan clergy, and lay
partners for his fatherly love and example. To this day,
Bukidnon is close to Fr Mat’s heart, just as he is close to
Bukidnon’s heart — for such is the way a true missionary’s
heart beats” –www.xu.edu.ph

Ms Richel Petalcurin
Ms Richel Petalcurin is from Sumilao Bukidnon and although
she was not an IP like the rest of her Higaonon friends in the
community where she grew up, she considers herself as one
with them. She was once the Student Activities and
Leadership Development Head at Xavier University – Ateneo
de Cagayan. Currently, she’s the Scholarships Head at the
CdO City Government and is still continually advocating for
lumad empowerment.

Jession Diwangan
Jession Diwangan is a lumad from the Umayamnon tribe in
Cabanglasan, Bukidnon. He grew up experiencing all the
difficulties as a lumad in the modern world, yet along with all
these struggles, he continues to be a loud and proud lumad. He
is currently a graduating Electronics Engineering student at
Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan. Grateful for his
education because of the Jesuit Mission in his area, he is
inspired and eager to go back A.S.A.P to his beloved tribal
community right after he finishes his college education.
 Umayam: Rippling Out

A 14 year missionary work of Fr. Mateo “Mat” Sanchez, S.J. with the

Umayamnon Tribe in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon

Fr. Sanchez is an elderly Jesuit from Uson, Masbate who was once assigned in a tribal

community in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon to do missionary work in 1996. A large population of the

community were the Umayamnon Tribe, named after the river Umayam where they originally

came from, about 30 families settled in the newly logged areas of Cabanglasan, the rest were

Christians and Christian-converts.

The datu system of leadership still prevails among the tribesmen. They are animistic in

belief. Some of the lumad still practice polygamy, but limited to two wives. A tradition of

assassination by stealth to avenge death of relatives is still prevalent among them.

Fr. Sanchez’s main intention for the missionary work is to simply help them in terms of

their physical, material, and spiritual needs, because they were indeed poor and are in need of

much help. “Our aim was not to proselytize the lumad. We attended to their physical needs.

Their houses were huts made of barks of trees and leaves and all they would eat is kamote all

day.”1 At the time when Fr. Sanchez was assigned in the municipality, he was assisting an Italian

Jesuit priest, Fr. Feruccio Leoni, SJ. The Jesuit Mission in Bukidnon grew to be of extreme

significance and so the two Jesuits asked for funding from abroad, and with God’s grace, money

from Japan and Italy were sent. It is because of this that Fr. Sanchez was able to help build

houses for the lumad community, a dormitory for Umayamnon scholars who went to Fr. Leoni

1
Fr Sanchez when asked if there goal was to convert lumads into Christians
Memorial School, Inc. for their studies, literacy centers, the building of their parish and some

other chaplets in unreachable areas, and the development and enrichment of the community—

access to potable water and electricity.

I went to help these people. They are really very poor – poor in everything; material
means, culturally, intellectually and spiritually. This will really be a big challenge for me. This
is the work I really came for, Lord, please help me to help them. I don’t want to dominate them.
And yet they are also like children in need of development. But then they also have their own
culture, however poor they may be. (Journal Entry, 9 August 1997) 2

This was back in 1996. Much has changed. Due to the long hold of the Jesuits in the

mission areas in Bukidnon, especially in Cabanglasan, the Umayamnon do not anymore feel the

need to flee further and further to the outskirts. Much of them are already educated and are now

helping to rebuild their own community. One is a fifth year Electronic Engineering student in

one of the prestigious Universities in Cagayan de Oro City.3

One with Them

Ms. Richel “Petals” Petalcurin with the Higaonon Tribe in Sumilao, Bukidnon

Ms Petalcurin is currently the City Scholarships Head in the City Government of

Cagayan de Oro and was born and grew up in Vista Villa, Sumilao, Bukidnon among the

Higaonon tribe. “I felt that I was one of them. I never thought that there were differences

between us (Cebuanos) and the lumads.”4 The lumad in Sumilao are warm, embracing, and
2
Journal Entry from Mateo Sanchez SJ glimpses & gratitude
3
Jession Diwangan is a graduating Electronics Engineering student in Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan who is
sustained by his academic scholarship, DOST scholarship, and aid from the Jesuit Mission
4
Ms Petalcurin when asked if there were cultural barriers between Christians and lumads in Bukidnon
collective people. Ever since Ms. Petals was young, she was already exposed to the celebrations

and rituals made by the Higaonon in their community.

The Higaonon also have their distinct dialect. Although she couldn’t speak fluently their

binukid5 way of speaking, which is spoken in a liko-liko/bawod-bawod6 manner, she is able to

understand what they mean due to the years of being around with them in their community. One

greeting Ms Petals won’t forget is, “maayad daluman inyo alan!” or “good evening!” For every

time after the sun sets, when the farmers are off from a hard day’s work in the cornfields, they

would say to one another this sweet communal greeting before heading home to their families.

Ms Petalcurin recalls this sad experience back then when she was attending school in a

literacy center near their Sitio when her classmates, who happen to be lumad, are teased and

bullied for their strange accent and their dark skin tone. Young Petals stood up for her lumad

friends and sermoned them of being disrespectful, just in time when their teacher came and

scolded the young bullies. Lumad discrimination is prevalent, even at their own Sitio, how much

more when a lumad and the foreign other from a far place meet? This is only one of the many

concerns faced by her lumad brethren in Sumilao.

Just like Ms Petals, she’s not the only one who escaped the life in the mountains, even

some of her lumad friends escaped from the farming that they are used to, and instead chose to

go to the city to seek for better jobs and opportunities, because to put it bluntly, farming is a

miserable work to do. It requires extensive labor yet only produces a small amount of money for

the hardworking farmer. But currently, because of the presence of Government support and Non-

government organizations, a few number of young people are now interested in farming, apart

from the reason that they are stuck and have no other option to take. “Much more work,
5
Binukid is what the Higaonon tribesmen call their dialect
6
The binukid dialect has this curvy and stretched accent which makes it distinctly their own
correction of oppressive systems, and empowerment is needed in order to boost back the vigor of

our farmers to farm,” Ms. Petals strongly suggested.

Apart from these two concerns on discrimination and the lack of interest in farming,

what’s more striking is the fact that young lumad Higaonons tend to lose track with their roots

because they are greatly influenced with modernization. They are stripping off their culture –

material or non-material (music, folkways, attires, et. al.) because they want to be the same with

the people from the city.

Ms. Petals sees this as a disturbing issue, especially that she grew up with the Higaonon’s

way of life and their colorful customes, practices, and tradition—and to see this all start to

perish, due to modernization, would be a disturbing and sad experience. That is why, with her

current advocacies she is doing her best to promote IP Empowerment in her own community in

Sumilao, the Umayamnon tribe in Cabanglasan, and also the Higaonon in Baungon, through her

various projects.

“Although I am not born a Higaonon, but because I grew up with them, I am always one
with them, and with that, I consider myself an adopted Higaonon from Sumilao, Bukidnon.”7

The Plight of the Lumad

Jession Diwangan an Umayamnon gives light on the problems and issues faced by his tribe

7
Ms Petalcurin’s closing statement during the interview
 Jession Diwangan is a fifth year graduating student of Electronic Engineering in Xavier

University – Ateneo de Cagayan. Jession is an Umayamnon lumad from the municipality of

Cabanglasan, Bukidnon. He lives in the far mountains in Cabanglasan. It takes a two-hour walk

from their simple home to where he goes for his preschool and grade school education in their

nearby literacy center.

In high school, Jession was a scholar by Fr. Mat Sanchez, S.J. where he lived in the

Kahungyaman dormitory for four years to attend to his academic life in Fr. Leoni Memorial

School (FLMS). When he graduated from fourth year high school, her teacher suggested that he

should take-up the DOST scholarship and entrance test at Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro,

considering that Jession was one of the brightest students who graduated High School at FLMS.

Reviewing only from the books donated by Xavier University High School students, Jession was

able to pass the entrance test at XU and was granted the two scholarships, one from the

University and the other from DOST.

Jession doesn’t know where Cagayan de Oro is and at the time when he first enrolled

himself at Xavier, he was all alone. Gladly, with the help of then Student Activities and

Leadership Development Head, Ms. Richel Petalcurin, he was helped by her in looking for a

place to stay. He recalled that at the first few months in the city, he was afraid to cross the

streets, mesmerized by how tall the buildings were, and disturbed by how busy the lives of

people were in contrast to his simple life back in the mountains of Cabanglasan, Bukidnon.

Being a lumad all his life, although away from the community for five years, he recalls

and explains to us the plight of the lumad based on his own personal experiences growing up in

their Umayamnon tribal community in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon:

 1) Parents do not invest in education. Growing up with a very poor family, what his parents

wanted for him was to simple become a farmer and marry at young age in order to start a

family. But because of his determination and eagerness to find hope for the family,

Jession insisted that education is the only way for him to escape their poverty. His

decisions were also greatly impact by the Jesuit priests in their community who insisted

that they become educated and literate. He mentioned, “if not for literacy centers by the

Jesuits, we will still be taken advantage by others—businessmen who buy crops and

vegetables from us at a very low price.”

2) Lumad people are constantly discriminated. There is this “taga bukid”8 stigma that other

people impose on them, that they are lesser of value because of their lack of education.

Jession recalls this one experience of him and his friend. His friend sold silhig lanot9 and

earned an amount of five hundred pesos. When his friend bought his hard earned money

at a sari-sari store for food, he was short-changed. This experience concretely manifests

how lumads are taken advantage off for their illiteracy. At school, Jession and his fellow

lumads often get teased by their other classmates for their dark skin and their simple

being different. “This has always been heart aching, that we lumads are discriminated and

disrespected for who we are—for our skin, the way we talk, our beliefs, and even our

unique way of life,” he emotionally mentioned.

3) In the barangay where Jession belongs, there are no lumad representatives. He identified

this as a major problem because who then will listen to the voice of the lumad? He

mentioned, “It is because of this that we are not empowered. We feel powerless.” He

pointed out that it was just recently that he knew that there were actually rights of the

8
Taga bukid, translated in English, from the mountains, referring to lumad or indigenous peoples
9
Silhig lanot is a soft broom; a broom with Corypha palm fiber bristles
 indigenous peoples, but without representatives in government, how then can they

practice such rights? Who then will push them to fight for their rights? When they have

problems in their farming, they don’t feel government intervention, is it because of the

lack of representation?

4) Peace and order is also a problem. Jession explains, “our place was once peaceful, but

then when they (NPA) arrived, they killed our lumad leaders, my father and uncle

included, and they appointed their own people to take hold of the community. They

threaten us if we do not cooperate to their commands and wishes.” Even up to present,

although at a minimal because of the implemented Martial Law, these insurgents

continue to recruit young lumad men. “Many of us are against it, but we can’t do

anything about it. We feel so trapped and powerless,” he added.

5) Since there place is far away from the lungsod,10 healthcare is one of the most difficult

problems they have to bare. From there place, it takes about an approximate five-hour

walk to the nearby clinic, an additional two-hour ride to the hospital. He explains the

scenario every time one member of the tribe or the community gets sick, “we place the

sick person on a cloth carried by two bamboos and we walk to the nearest clinic for about

five hours. By the time we arrived, the patient would already be dead.” This is the bitter

reality they all have to face in times when sickness haunts them. Many others just choose

to be done a ritual or buhat-buhat11 and then would choose to wait and die, rather than

burden the others in the long and uncertain journey to seek for refuge.

6) In lieu with the discrimination and oppression they face as lumads, there is this

deteriorating sense of determination and identity among young Umayamnon lumads like

10
The center of business and growth in their municipality
11
Buhat-buhat is a healing ritual done to sick members by their shaman or native healer
 Jession. He mentioned, “It is because of this discrimination that my fellow tribesmen

experience that they choose to not recognize themselves proudly anymore as lumad,

because they feel inferior or of lesser kind and it is truly heart wrenching.”

7) Another common issue lumads face is their fight for their ancestral domains. “Many

claim that it’s (the land) theirs but we don’t even know them (foreign people), we claim

that it’s ours passed on by our kanino-ninoan, but they also claim it’s theirs, while

presenting their papers as proof,” Jession explained. When they go to government to seek

for help, it usually takes a very long time to for them to be answered, and usually, no

action is done in lieu with their concern. This is very reason that more and more lumads

like the Umayamon in Cabanglasan are displaced and are pushed further to the outskirts.

Despite all these problems they face as lumads, Jession made this confident remark:

“In everything that I do and in everywhere I go, I bring them (my fellow tribesmen) with me.

Every time I achieve something, it’s not only I who have achieved such. Dili lang Jession naka

achieve ato. Umayamnon naka achieve ato.”12

12
Dili lang Jession naka achieve ato. Umayamnon naka achieve ato, translated to English, every time Jession
achieved something, Umayamnon also took part in the achievement