For the indigenous peoples (IP) of the Philippines, life has always been an unrelenting uphill battle even before the start of the Duterte regime. With the unbending will of a collective culture as old as the very lands they defend with their lives, centuries of experience taught IPs to hold fast against the corruption and plundering of their communities.

“Mga Espanyol, Americano, at Hapon, di nga nakalusot sa kanila eh. Si Duterte pa kaya? Ano ang napapatunayan nun?” Gab Torrecampo, chairperson of national minority advocacy group Katribu Youth asked.

Months before the start of the Duterte regime, in September 2015, paramilitary forces massacred members of a Lumad learning facility, in an atrocity later called the Lianga massacre. This spurred a growing fear and concern on the continuous militarization of indigenous communities who are steadfast in combating the plunder of their ancestral lands.

Duterte took advantage of this atrocity by promising in his campaign that he will pull out all military troops from the Lumad communities. The past five years has shown this never came to fruition.

“You have the Indigenous People’s Rights Act and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples to protect and assist you,” Duterte said in his first SONA.

Months later, policemen stationed outside the United States embassy infamously ran over Lumad protesters in an effort to break up a peaceful protest. The Lumad have been holding a long and constant resistance against the invasive and harmful mining propagated by foreign mining companies.

The Lumad treat their ancestral lands as integral aspects of their lives—their culture ingrained in every drop of sweat and blood spent living on it generation after generation. Duterte only added to the many threats against the Lumad’s ancestral home by saying that he will bomb Lumad schools because they provide a breeding ground for “extremist ideologies” in the south.

“Kapag ang Presidente ang nagsabi, di na lang ito simpleng salita. In a way, tatanggapin na yan bilang command, dahil tingin nga ng military [kay Duterte] ay siya ang kanilang chief of command,” Torrecampo stated. Up to 178 Lumad schools have shut down since 2016—with up to 32 documented attacks which include forced closures, illegal student arrests, and airstrikes.

Violence only continued to escalate in February 2018. A declaration of potential urbanization and commercialization of indigenous Mindanaoan lands was made, which, combined with the ongoing martial law imposition and supposed anti-terrorist militant movement in the area, threatened the Lumad population to either flee their homes, or to stand against the intrusion of mining corporations into their homes.

This was further backed by the imposition of Executive Order (EO) 70, notoriously known as the whole-of-nation approach against insurgency, as well as the establishment of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in that same year, the result of which assigned government agencies under the jurisdiction of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). This posed a huge threat for the IPs, as among the assigned government agencies are the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the Department of Education (DepEd). This led to an alarming level of state control over not only the very policies and programs in support of indigenous peoples, but also over their basic education.

DepEd gave those Lumad schools their licenses to operate, yet by 2021, the very same department revoked them. “Doon makikita kung paano [ginagamit] ang EO 70 ng mismong Duterte administration [upang i-manipulate] yung mga different agencies and departments para unti-unti na sa kanilang understanding, masupil yung communist insurgency,” Torrecampo stated.

In his SONA in 2018, Duterte merely gave mining industries a warning to do better, as he had done in the past SONAs. In his succeeding speeches, he no longer had anything to say of indigenous peoples’ rights and the Lumad community.

Approaching the end of the era of Duterte, the country has now seen the dangers that false performative politics have on the very lives of the indigent and indigenous peoples of the country. In this, one can see the importance of proper education regarding the political matters of the nation. Apt scrutiny, accountability, and responsibility for the future political leaders are key to ensuring a better future ahead. ●