Lesson 3 - IP Status in The Philippines

Concept Building:
What You Need to Know
Learning Outcomes
In this lesson, students are expected to have:
1. defined the indigenous peoples in the Philippines;
2. identified the indigenous group people in the Philippines and their
location of domain;
3. explained the function of the National Commission on Indigenous
People (NCIP);and
4. showed respect for diversity
Lesson 3- IP Status in the Philippines
IP Status in the Philippines (the NCIP, integration of IP studies in curricula development)

• To date, the Philippines is the only country in Asia that has officially used the term
indigenous peoples and recognized their rights as such. The Indigenous Peoples
Rights Act (IPRA), enacted in 1997, defines indigenous peoples as follows.
A group of people or homogeneous societies identified by self-ascription and
ascription by others, who have continuously lived as organized community on
communally bounded and defined territory, and who have, under claims of ownership
since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such territories, sharing
common bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits,
or who have, through resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of
colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures, become historically
differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. ICCs/IPs [indigenous cultural
communities/indigenous peoples] shall likewise include peoples who are regarded as
indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the
country, at the time of conquest or colonization, or at the time of inroads of
nonindigenous religions and cultures, or the establishment of present state
boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and
political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains
or who may have resettled outside their ancestral domains. IPRA, Chapter II, Section
3h).
• The indigenous peoples/communities of the Philippines are divided into the
following two categories:
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(a) The Non-Islamised groups, which are distributed throughout the different
islands in the archipelago. Generally, they are called Katutubo (native) in the
Filipino language and Lumad (native) in the Bisayan language, referring to the
IPs in the island of Mindanao.
(b) The Islamised indigenous people, who are confined in the autonomous region in
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on the western part of the island and are composed of
thirteen ethno-linguistic groups. These groups speak different languages and have
different cultural orientations—they follow traditional pre-Islamic culture and have
many commonalities with the non-Muslim Lumad groups. Islam is mainly the
common unifying factor among them. Recently, they have shown a preference for
being called Moros. The term Moro denotes a political identity distinct from that of
the peoples of Mindanao and Sulu. The Spanish colonisers originally used the term
for the people of Mindanao, who shared the religion of the Moors who had once
ruled Spain. It used to be initially considered a derogatory term by the Muslim
Filipinos; however, in the 1970s, the term Moro was reclaimed in the efforts of the
Islamised indigenous people to carve a distinct Moro identity for themselves and the
consciousness of a nation, the Bangsa Moro, an Islamic State.
• Indigenous peoples’ communities can be found in the interiors of Luzon, Mindanao,
and some islands of Visayas.
• Indigenous Peoples/Indigenous Cultural Communities (IPs/ICCs) are comprised by
ethnolinguistic groups in the country. They are located in seven (7) ethnographic
areas as follows:
1) Cordillera Administrative Region and Region I;
2) Region II;
3) Region III and the rest of Luzon;
4) Island Groups and the rest of Visayas;
5) Northern and Western Mindanao;
6) Central Mindanao; and, (Region XII [SOCCSKSARGEN])
7) Southern and Eastern Mindanao.
• Prior to the arrival of Spaniards in 1521 and the introduction of a Western form of
governance, the IPs/ ICCs maintained their autonomous communities in their
respective ancestral domains. These are small and independent communities with
their respective socio-political and economic systems such as the Muslims of
Mindanao with their feudal system; the Igorots of Cordillera with their semiprimitive
communal structure; and the Aetas with their primitive communal set-up. They
adopt the customary concepts and practices of land use and ownership through
collectivism and assume the care of their resources.
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• The total population may not have been reported comprehensively. Different
reports indicate different numbers of IPs. Neither the National Statistics Office nor
LGUs have updated their data on the IP populations. Many of the surveys at most
provide rough estimates.
• Furthermore, IP groups are often referred by various names. Historical accounts and
anthropological studies differ in classifying the indigenous cultural communities.
They do not always accord on the nature and variations in language, social
organizations and economic practices in what constitutes an indigenous cultural
community (Jocano, 2000).
• The IPs in the Visayas are based in Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Negros Oriental, Cebu
City and Northern Samar.
• The indigenous peoples in the Philippines continued to live in their relatively

isolated, self-sufficient communities, at the time when most lowland communities
had already been integrated into a single colony under Spain in the 1700s and 1800s.
• They were able to preserve the culture and traditions of their “ethnos” or “tribe” as
reflected in their communal views on land, their cooperative work exchanges, their
communal rituals, their songs, dances, and folklore. Instead of hierarchical
governments, each of these communities had its own council of elders who
customarily settled clan or tribal wars to restore peace and unity.
• But with the long years of colonial rule in the Philippines, from the 1700s to the early
1900s, and the influx of migrants into indigenous peoples’ territories, many
influences have been introduced that gradually changed the indigenous way of life
Indigenous communities at present are still characterized by these phenomena but
are definitely no longer in their pure and natural state, showing varying degrees of
influence from outside culture.
• Indigenous peoples (IPs) in the Philippines experienced intensified violations of their
human and collective rights in 2018 with the declaration of martial law in Mindanao
and all-out war against so-called terrorists. A crackdown by the government against
political dissenters followed the declaration of the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) and
Communist Party of the Philippines as terrorist organizations. The government of
the Philippines unilaterally suspended peace talks with the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines, continued its counter-insurgency program Oplan
Kapayapaan, and implemented other policies that threaten peoples’ rights. 2018
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was another year of impunity in the country, where IPs and human rights defenders
experienced unbridled attacks under the tyrannical rule of President Rodrigo
Duterte. Indigenous human rights defenders were criminalized for protecting their
rights to their lands and resources from plunder and destruction by so-called
development projects, and for fighting against human rights violations and tyranny.
• Today, the indigenous groups in the country remain in their original ancestral lands
as they preserve their cultural practices and traditions. And while the Philippine
government passed the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997, there are still issues
left unsolved, including their right for inclusion.
• The term indigenous cultural communities (ICCs) was used in the Philippine
Constitution to describe a group of people sharing common bonds of language,
customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, and who have, under claims
of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized a territory.
Time immemorial refers to a period of time when as far back as memory can go,
certain ICCs/IPs are known to have occupied, possessed and utilized a defined
territory devolved to them by operation of custom law/traditions or inherited from
their ancestors.
• Both the terms IPs and ICCs refer to homogenous societies identified by self-
ascription and ascription by others, who have continuously lived as a community on
communally bounded and defined territory, sharing common bonds of customs,
traditions and other cultural traits, through resistance to political, social and cultural
inroads to colonization, non-indigenous religions and culture. Whereas, the Filipino
majority learned very well the ways of the colonial masters by adapting to their laws
and practices, the minority (IPs), consciously asserted the integrity of their ancestral
territories, pre-Hispanic native culture and justice systems which are viewed as
diametrically opposed to the majority's world view, but which the IPRA law attempts
to recognize and interface with the national legal system.
• In the Philippines, indigenous peoples are currently known as Indigenous Cultural
communities (ICC’s). The ICC’s constitute a historical phenomenon whose
development dates back to the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines.
Today, members of non-Muslim ICC’s are classified into more or less 110 tribal
groups and number about 1 million. They are concentrated in major mountain
ranges from Batanes in the north Jolo in the south.
• The Philippines consist of a large number of upland ethnic groups living in the
country. The highland tribes have co-existed with the lowland Austronesian tribes
for thousands of years in the Philippine archipelago. The primary difference is that
they were not absorbed by centuries of Spanish and United States colonization of
the Philippines, and in the process have retained their customs and traditions. This
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is mainly due to the rugged inaccessibility of the mountains, which discouraged
Spanish and American colonizers from coming into contact with the highlanders.
• In 1997, the Republic Act 8371 or Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997 created the
NCIP. These two (Office for Northern Cultural Communities) and (Office for Southern
Cultural Communities) were merged to form the NCIP.
The National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP)

• To carry out policies set forth in R.A. 8371 (IPRA)
• Primary government agency responsible for the formulation and implementation of
policies, plans and programs to promote and protect the rights and well-being of the
ICCs/IPs and the recognition of their ancestral domains as well as their rights thereto.
• NCIP exercises administrative, quasi-legislative & quasi-judicial functions/powers
• Decisions of the NCIP are appealable at the Court of Appeals
• The NCIP is the primary government agency that formulates and implements
policies, plans and programs for the recognition, promotion and protection of the
rights and well-being of IPs with due regard to their ancestral domains and lands,
self-governance and empowerment, social justice and human rights, and cultural
integrity.
• The National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) is mandated to protect and
promote the interest and well-being of indigenous peoples with due regard to their
beliefs, customs, traditions and institutions. As such, it shall serve as the primary
government agency responsible for the formulation and implementation of
pertinent and appropriate policies and programs to carry out the policies set forth
in the new law.
• The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) is an agency of the
Philippine government with frontline services for the Indigenous Peoples and
attached to the Office of the President. The NCIP evolved through a series of
governmental reorganizations in an effort to properly address the multifarious
issues and concerns confronting the country’s diverse Indigenous Cultural
Communities/ Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs), and to effectively, efficiently and
responsively deliver basic services to them.

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Concept Building:

What You Need to Know

Lesson 3- IP Status in the Philippines

IP Status in the Philippines (the NCIP, integration of IP studies in curricula development)

• The indigenous peoples in the Philippines continued to live in their relatively

The National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP)

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