This article is the author’s final requirement for her DC 43: Development Writing class. They were asked to write a development article based on their interviews, observations, and experience from their immersion in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon on August 31 – September 2, 2018.

As I panted with severe effort from the rigorous journey, I roved my eyes through the vast sprawling landscape and let myself feast on what lay before me. Small houses dotted the mountain. Little children laughed musically as they chased each other and played in the dirt. Women flocked to the lone garden hose that served as their only source of water to do the laundry or fetch water. It was an idyllic life in the country. But little did I know that beneath the sunny smiles and contented living, the Lumads there were fighting for their life.

“100%, ang mga Lumad, ginalait – lait jud.” (The Lumads are 100% being oppressed.) Ate Bibi, one of the tribe heads admitted with resignation. I perked my ears up and noticed that everyone else in my team sat with renewed attention at what she just said. She continued to say that they were indeed feared for killing people but denied vehemently that it was true. They were a peaceful group of Umajamnon who used to live by which they called “Umajam”or “river” in their language. In simpler terms, they were the
“River People”. However due to urbanization, they were forced out of their lands by the government, and became nomadic. They settled in one place during planting season and after harvest, they would move someplace else. It’s kind of ironic how a once by the river people turn to farming as their livelihood. But it’s what they were good at. Their staple crops were abaca, lanot, corn and rice and they sold these at the mainland.

It would seem that the Umajamnons could get by fairly well despite the fact that they were pushed out of their own ancestral lands. But the issues go deeper than that. When we were there, we\ stayed at a small, dilapidated classroom. There was another one at the foot of the hill where the English classes were held. Later, found out that these were provided by the government but based on their disrepair, it was quite evident. The government simply didn’t care.

The Umajamnons were in dire need of education and yearned for education, like a caged bird that wanted to fly, but the government couldn’t even be bothered to repair their classrooms or send them new books or pave the roads to their mountain for better access. Thankfully, Father Mateo Sanchez built an NGO that provided education for these much –deserving Umajamnons. He supported Lumad scholars and ensured that they graduated and became professionals that would be able to help their family and their tribe. He was indeed a hope for the people that no else seemed to care about. Education is slowly but surely being provided for the tribe and indeed we have Father Mateo to thank for that. But it would be even more amazing if the government could provide just a little more help to these people who deserve so much more. Instead, the government built a sense of hope in their hearts only to crush it in the end. I really couldn’t believe it myself and was appalled that the government would do such a thing, but as I looked into Ate Bibi’s and the tribal leaders’ withdrawn faces I knew it couldn’t be anything but the truth. According to them, the Army and CAPHGO were stationed in their area to maintain the safety and keep the peace. All was well at first and the two military groups even gave them Marijuana seeds to plant in exchange for 10, 000 pesos. The happy tribe agreed seeing as farming was their life and the money they got would already be a big help for their expenses. But then as the harvest season came, they were immediately chased out of their own lands once more or they will be shot to death.

I sat there with my mouth agape and my eyes wide open. That was just too much. The men who were supposed to be protecting them ended up exploiting them instead for their own selfishness and greed. But then why did the Umajamnons have so much trouble with their lands? Why do they keep on being pushed out from them? It was then that the tribal leaders shared that their fellow Lumad was to blame. He was a learned man and worked in the government. When the time came when the Umajamnons needed to settle some paperwork for legal issues regarding their lands, this man presented himself to help. The Umajamnons embraced him as one of their own and left him to his own devices as they weren’t really familiar with the whole process. In the end, they were betrayed by the very man they deigned to trust and found their own lands stolen from them right under their noses.

However, despite all these issues plaguing their tribe, the tribal leaders still keep on fighting for their lands and still keep believing that one day what was once rightfully theirs would be returned to them. And as I looked at their fierce, determined faces and listened to their voices filled with conviction, I know that to be true. Justice will be served for them. And hopefully this story would open other people’s eyes to the reality that indigenous tribes such as the Umajamnons face. They are not killers. They are not mere savages. They are a proud tribe with a rich heritage and with people whose hearts are as deep and as clear as the rivers they once resided by. They are as gritty and as determined as the land they till. They are the Umajamnons and they are worth fighting for.