INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S OF THE PHILIPPINES

The Philippines is a culturally diverse country with an estimated 14- 17 million Indigenous Peoples (IPs)
belonging to 110 ethno-linguistic groups. They are mainly concentrated in Northern Luzon (Cordillera
Administrative Region, 33%) and Mindanao (61%), with some groups in the Visayas area.

WHO ARE THEY

 Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) - refer to a group of people or

homogenous 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, became historically differentiated from the
majority of Filipinos. ICCs/IPs 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 non-indigenous 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.

HISTORY OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

The Spanish crown, by virtue of colonization, claimed rights over the islands and the authority to
dispose of the land. Later, the US authorities institutionalized their legal powers to dispose of all land
and voided all the previous land grants by Moro or Lumad chiefs, as well as others throughout the
Philippines, that had been made without government consent. Only individuals or corporations could
register private claims to land ownership. This left no room for the concept of ancestral or communal
land, which the indigenous Lumad had held to be sacred and not subject to individual title or ownership.

THE DIFFERENT IP GROUPS IN THE PHILIPPINES

A common geographical distinction is often made between Igorot (Tagalog for ‘mountaineer’) on
Luzon, and Lumad (‘indigenous’) for those in Mindanao, in the Central Philippines such as the Mangyan
and some parts of the visayas, the Ati’s.

1. The Igorots
a. Ifugao
b. Bontoc
c. Kankanaey
d. Ibaloi
e. Kalinga
f. Kalanguya
g. Isinai
h. Tingguian

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 i. Isneg
j. Ilongot
2. The Negritos
a. Agta
b. Aeta/Ayta
c. Ati
d. Batak
3. The Mangyan
a. Iraya
b. Alangan
c. Tadyawan
d. Tawbuid
e. Buhid
f. Bangon
g. Hanunuo
h. Ratagnon
4. The Lumad
a. Bagobo
b. B’laan
c. Higaonon
d. Mamanwa
e. Mandaya
f. Kalagan
g. Manobo
h. Mansaka
i. Subanen
j. Talaandig
k. Tasaday
l. Tiboli
m. Tiruray

CURRENT ISSUES, PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FACED BY THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE
PHILIPPINES

1. Issues
a. Although most indigenous communities live in isolated rural areas, a growing number
are migrating to cities in search of better livelihoods and social services
b. Lumad communities have often been caught in the crossfire of the protracted civil
conflict in the southern Philippines, and regularly accused of harbouring communist
sympathies.
c. Land rights remain an ongoing issue for indigenous communities, many of whom still
lack official recognition of their ancestral land.

CITE THE RECENT LOCAL AND PARTICULAR ISSUES FROM THE OPLAN BANTAY LAYA 1 AND 2 DURING
THE ARROYO REGIME UP TO OPLAN KAPAYAPAAN OF THE DUTERTE REGIIME.

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 SURIGAO DEL SUR AND DEL NORTE BAKWITS DUE TO MILITARIZATION

DAVAO REGION AND SOCKSARGEN

AGUSAN DEL SUR BAKWITS

MISAMIS ORIENTAL BAKWITS

2. Problems
a. Despite the abundance of natural resources around them, the indigenous peoples (IPs)
in the Philippines, like their global counterparts, are ranked among the poorest and
most disadvantaged sector.
b. Many of the 110 ethno-linguistic indigenous groups in the Philippines experience
discrimination, degradation of resource bases, and armed conflict. IP communities,
generally located in distinct ancestral territories, have high rates of unemployment,
underemployment, and illiteracy. While their socio-economic, cultural, and spiritual
lives revolve around their ancestral domains, indigenous peoples see their ownership of
land shrinking and disregarded.
3. Challenges
a. Indigenous people across the globe have engaged in a constant struggle to take control
of natural resources and land against intrusion by external developers, state interest
and commercial pressures brought up by practices such as mining and agribusiness.
i. How they adjust their livelihood and cope with climate change.
ii. Adjustments to environmental calamity, catastrophe and being caught in
conflict with the ongoing conflict between the military and the NPA, with most
of them (IP’s), relocated to evacuation centers.

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