HST106 Argumentative Essay

According to (Bello, 2020) Approximately 15 percent or around 16.5 million Philippines'

population is said to be indigenous peoples known as the "Lumad." The dominant majority of
Christian Philippines and Muslim Philippines are typically separated from their lowlands. These
people were able to preserve their rich culture, traditions, their communal perspective on lands,
cooperative work exchanges, their rituals of songs, dances, and folklore. Instead of following the
government system of the Philippines as a whole, the Indigenous people have their own council
elders who’s in charge of everything involving peace and unity within the tribe.

The 1997 Philippine Indigenous People's Rights Act is one of the most advanced laws in
the world concerning the treatment of Indigenous Peoples. It was the result of a step-by-step
move enshrined in the Constitution of 1987 that was established and ratified after the exodus of
dictator Ferdinand Marcos. This legislation establishes the rights of aboriginal people to the
traditional domains, their autonomy and empowerment, their rights to social justice, their rights
to people and their cultural identity. In 2007 a United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was approved, defining and strengthening the basis for their
identity, education, health, work and language rights, including the life, dignity, security and
rights of indigenous communities around the world. Ten years later, the UN General Assembly
adopted the Declaration in 2007. The United Nations recently adopted Agenda 2030 and the
Sustainable Development Goals, including indigenous rights and stability. (Torres, 2016) The
law provided the advantages and protection of rights of the Indigenous peoples among the
country. IPRA acknowledges and offers recognition, delineation and qualification processes of
these ancestral territories and jurisdictions for IPs in the area of their ancestral territory. It also
addresses the wider problem of human rights and social justice and provides for the IP's rights to
self-government and empowerment.

The IPRA law has helped the Indigenous peoples of the Philippines as it has protected
their rights and privileges but the law also failed to protect the community because of the many
problems and issues going around the country. The ongoing threats to indigenous leaders, and the
systemic extra-judicial killings of indigenous people, have further adverse social consequences.
This has contributed to more tension, fear and distrust between indigenous peoples, which
weakens indigenous cooperative and solidary structures. Due to the chilling impact of the
massacres, indigenous peoples have weakened their collective rights in the interests of dignity
and recognition. Also suffering as a result of militarizing their territories, infringement on their
personal and collective rights. Indigenous militarisation communities include the Philippine
military's permanent physical foundation inside ancestral territory; routine military operations
including unauthorized searches of homes, imposition of food blockades, ceilings and other
limits, questioning and intimidation of alleged rebel groups; and the forced recruitment of IPs
into paramilitary forces.This is to further understand the abuses the Indigenous peoples received
even with the laws visions and missions of protecting them. This to include the wide impact of
the widespread execution in indigenous territory of extractive industries and other development
projects without their approval rightly violates their collective rights and worsens their oppressed
condition. This involves mining firms, huge dams and other energy ventures, a major
agri-business and ecotourism, which often undermine seriously the stability, protection and
prosperity of indigenous peoples.

The efficacy of the law and its benefits may help the situations of the Indigenous
communities in their respective tribe and lands. Many of them received its advantages yet the
IPRA Law also manifested the negative effects and violation in the Indigenous peoples rights
and security. Thus, worsened their situation because of the on-going violations even with the
implementation of the law and its reasons of conflicting laws and policies involving ownerships,
control, management and the progressive land resources. This to include the officials and
personnel’s negligence of the NCIP as well as other agencies of the government that have proved
their role in the manipulation of the FPII, acceptance of bribes or their sworn duties and
responsibilities with respect to the rights and interests of indigenous communities are also absent
from liability mechanisms.
Bello, W. (2020, October 07). The subversion of the Philippines' Indigenous People's
Rights Act. Retrieved January 10, 2021, from
https://focusweb.org/the-subversion-of-the-philippines-indigenous-peoples-rights-act/#:~:te
xt=IPRA%2C%20passed%2010%20years%20later,rights%20to%20their%20ancestral%20
domain%3A&text=right%20to%20safe%20and%20clean,where%20the%20land%20is%2
0located.

THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE ... (n.d.).

Retrieved January 10, 2021, from
https://aboutphilippines.org/documents-etc/Human-Rights-Situation-Indigenous-Peoples.p
df

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE PHILIPPINES: PERSPECTIVES ON INCLUSION.

(2016, June 15). Retrieved January 10, 2021, from
http://www.globi-observatory.org/indigenous-peoples-in-the-philippines-perspectives-on-in
clusion/