July 23, 2009, Sunstar Cagayan de Oro, Tribal leaders to gather for Sona,

July 23, 2009, Sunstar Cagayan de Oro, Tribal leaders to gather for Sona,

AT LEAST 100 tribal leaders will gather at Manresa Retreat Conference Center in Upper Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City in time for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday next week.

In a press briefing Monday, Carl Cesar Rebuta—Cagayan de Oro team leader of Legal Rights and Natural Resource Center Inc.-Kasama sa Kalikasan (LRC-KsK/Friends of the Earth, Phils) announced they will hold a four-day activity, which will start on July 26 up to 29, this year.

On the day Arroyo will have her Sona, Rebuta said they will view the live telecast collective and assess the President’s address.

The four-day activity will feature discussion on mining, plantations, women’s issues and the 2010 national elections, among others.

“The gathering will also be a venue to discuss the alternative policies for indigenous peoples (IPs), as well as provide space for the IPs to discuss the rights to self-determination,” Rebuta told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro after the press briefing.

The highlight of the gathering, Rebuta said will be on July 27 where the IP leaders will present the real State of the Indigenous Peoples’ Address (Sipa) by joining the multi-sectoral protest in downtown Cagayan de Oro.

Other features of this year’s Sipa will be a Sipa Gallery, which opens Tuesday at the gathering venue. It will run up to August 20.

There will also be a photo exhibit at Cagayan de Oro Tourism Showroom on July 24 that will be transferred to Capitol University (CU) Museum on July 27 to August 20, this year.

Since the enactment of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (Ipra), only 31 Certificate of Ancestral Domains Titles (CADTs) have been issued by the Philippine Government; 11 of which are in Mindanao covering almost one million hectares or only one percent of the entire ancestral territory of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines.

Mindanao Indigenous peoples comprise around nine million of the estimated 16 million IPs in the Philippines, LRC-KsK/FoE’s press briefer reads.

“(It is) sad to note that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) aggressively issued to exploit 542,353,00 hectares for mining,” Rebuta said. (CBC)

Published in the Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro newspaper on July 21, 2009. LINK: