INDIGENOUS PEOPLES NEWS

COTABATO CITY - Investigators are scrambling to identify for prosecution the gunmen who burned down over the weekend a decades-old historic worship site and houses of non-Moro ethnic Teduray tribespeople in Talayan, Maguindanao del Sur.

The incident displaced 114 Teduray families, according to members of the 80-seat parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

KORONADAL CITY - Colorful, giant, and beautiful and irresistible was how the Tnalak Festival 2023 and South Cotabato foundation anniversary civic-military parade here Friday morning.

Images below are from Nanardz Navarro and South Cotabato provincial government. 

COTABATO CITY - A learning hub in a remote public school in Talayan, Maguindanao del Sur is not only serving the Indigenous Peoples’ youth but their parents as well.

Already 12 years old but Mohaimen Ismael remains a second grader. At his age, he should be in Grace 6.

The problem was Mohaimen’s home was few kilometers away from the school and, due to extreme poverty, his parents could not fund his studies.

Since he has other siblings, Mohaimen was left behind.

MANILA – The Kidapawan municipal trial court in North Cotabato has cleared 43 individuals of assault in connection with a violent clash between police and demonstrators in 2016 as the prosecution failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The court granted the demurrer to evidence filed by the defense and dismissed the direct assault case against the accused, who were represented by lawyer Ester Escobidal-Vega of the Public Attorney’s Office.

MANILA – The Senate will pursue an investigation on the death of 24 members of the Teduray tribe at the foot of Mt. Minandar in Maguindanao del Norte due to a landslide on Oct. 28.

In a privilege speech Monday night, Senator Robinhood Padilla asked for his colleagues’ support as he lamented that a resort was constructed on the tribe’s ancestral domain in Sitio Tabunon, Barangay Kusiong, Datu Odin Sinsuat, forcing their relocation in 2020 to the accident site.

Sabay-sabay na inilibing kanina ang 20 mga bangkay na nahukay ng rescue team sa tinaguriang ground zero ng Bagyong Paeng sa Barangay Kusiong, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.

Karamihan sa mga ito ang katutubong Teduray.

Bakas sa mukha ng mga kaanak ng biktima ang labis na paghihinagpis sa sinapit ng kanilang mga kaanak.

Kabilang din sa inilibing kanina ang pinakahuling nahukay ng mga rescuers na isang 3-month-old baby.

Ang paglibing sa mass grave ay isinagawa sa bahagi pa rin ng Barangay Kusiong, Datu Odin Sinsuat.

KORONADAL CITY - Bilang suporta sa ika dalawampu’t limang anibersaryong pagpapatupad ng Indigenous People’s Rights and Acts  o IPRA Law ngayong 2022, ang PhilHealth XII ay nagsagawa ng malawakang pagpapatala ng mga indigenous community members.

Ito ay sa pamamagitan ng pagdalo sa malawakang “Kasalang Tribu” ng South Cotabato mula October 18 sa Lake Sebu, October 19 sa Tupi, October 20 sa Polomolok, October 21 sa Tampakan; October 24 sa T’boli at October 25 sa lungsod ng Koronadal.

COTABATO CITY--- Dispossession of lands in ancestral domains remained as the major problem besetting the indigenous people in Southern Philippines.

Leaders of the Higaonon, Lambangian. Teduray, Blaan, Erumanen ne Menuvu and Menubo Dulangan communities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao told reporters, during a dialogue Thursday, that they are expecting the BARMM legislature to focus attention on the issue.

ARAKAN, North Cotabato – Two centenarians in separate remote indigenous villages here have availed of the late birth registration service offered by the provincial government through its “Barangayan Serbisyo Caravan” program.

James Labiano, the focal person of the “Serbisyo Caravan,” said Wednesday the program aims to bring government services to the periphery of the community, particularly the indigenous peoples (IPs), to provide access to government services.

COTABATO CITY – A total of 160 members of indigenous peoples (IPs) across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are set to benefit from free skills training on modern agriculture techniques.

This, after the BARMM’s Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education - Technical Education Skills Development (MBHTE-TESD) and the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs (MIPA) agreed to provide free skills training for IPs in the region.