Women's voices

The last time I saw B’laan woman chieftain Bai Dalena Samling she was very angry. She was in the public consultation organized by the governor of South Cotabato and other members of the provincial board to hear out both those who are for or those against mining in Tampakan. I was impressed that the chieftain of an indigenous tribe should be a woman. Danlag, where she lives, sits on mineral deposit of what is potentially the biggest mine to be put up in the country.

Like most others, I had preconceptions about indigenous tribes as being backward and they would not have a woman for a leader.

She came to tell outsiders especially NGOs that she can speak for herself. She heard them say the tribe would not even know how to handle the money that the B’laans will get as part of their share in the revenues from the mining in Tampakan. She was especially miffed that critics use the cause of indigenous people against mining. “They are mostly outsiders or influenced by outsiders,” she said.

She complained that she was stopped from talking to the huge audience in a public consultation. Neither were her questions entertained. She told reporters later she wanted to question the British expert’s study on the environmental impact of proposed Tampakan mining project. He was hired by the bishop of the province.

“The Church’s so-called British expert has not been to our community and he does not know what he is talking about,” B’laan chieftain Bai Dalena Samling told the local media.

The British expert, Clive Wicks said the project poses “high risk to the lives of the host communities.” Not true. She said he probably was referring to illegal small-scale mining activities in his study. She wants Wicks and other critics to go home with her. “I want them to go up to the hills, to our community, if they really care about us, and bring us progress,” Samling adds.

Samling said the Tampakan mine project has so far brought in employment, given livelihood opportunities and education for children as well as infrastructure that would never have been built by the government because of its isolation.

She also disputed the argument that mining would take up agricultural lands. “Our hills are barren right now because of too much kaingin (slash-and-burn farming),” Samling said.

“I just wish that they tell the truth on what the condition really is in the hills. We didn’t have anything until this project came,” she added.

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Dalena will not be alone in defending her tribe for long. Other women related in one way or the other to mining or any other extractive industry are coming forward to help her defend the indigenous groups. The women met recently to cobble a campaign that will help Dalena Samling’s cause. Among the women are a diplomat, lawyers, miners, technocrats and geologists. Calling themselves “Diwata”, an indigenous name that connotes magical powers of women, aptly describes the group. But as Ambassador Delia Albert , an Ilocana diwata would say I am also indigenous.

Most interesting of the diwatas present was Secretary Donna Gasgonia, former secretary of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) and UNDP consultant for Philippine Poverty Initiative. In a few hours after the meeting when I got home she had sent e-mail what their work was all about. Aksyon agad.

They are dedicated to monitoring the environmental impact of extractive industries. By the way this is a wide field that includes oil and supplies many products that are indispensable to the modern way of life. There is no running away from it. The only choice is to make sure that whatever mining is done it must be responsible mining.

The issue has been mired in controversy. So it has become necessary to counteract disinformation being peddled around by rumor mongers and self-proclaimed saviors. “Our task is dedicated towards transparency and good governance in the environment sector particularly the impact of extractive industries,” she said. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI for short) is a global standard for transparency in the extractive industries.

The objective of the EITI is to ensure that accurate figures about revenues are publicly available. As of October 2010, there are 33 EITI implementing countries (28 candidate countries and 5 compliant countries).

The local group works with DILG and the United Nations Development Program. The initiative is concerned with both poverty and development.

Donna and Dalema are natural partners in Philippine nation-building. Dalema’s work has to reach the public who are often ignorant of the facts. Donna must ensure that an articulate woman like tribal chieftain Dalema is not elbowed out of consultations.

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Although she is not part of the Diwata group, Senator Loren Legarda, the chair of the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities, could very well be a diwata. She is actively promoting the well-being of the long neglected and marginalized indigenous peoples.

Senator Legarda hopes to cultivate “our pride in our cultural rootedness and recognize the people whose lives take us through many centuries of struggle to protect the land we live in, preserve the virtues we uphold and bring us back to who we are.”

I think that there is no argument about the value of the story of our indigenous peoples. As she rightly said they have shaped our story as a people — our music, arts and dance, our native knowledge and skills, our deeply held beliefs, our creativity, our sustainable ways of living with our physical environment and most important, our self-worth.

She has organized regional assemblies in various parts of the country to which Dalema could have come and be heard. The woman senator seeks a balance in bringing the indigenous people into the mainstream while preserving their culture and defending their rights. This is something that the B’laan woman tribal chieftain would welcome. Campaigns on their behalf must be built around their own lives rather than on what outsiders think is good for them.

If that is the aim of her work on indigenous people, then Dalema, Donna and other diwatas can help each other.

The final words from the diwata senator is encouraging: “Certainly, efforts can be launched, pursued and sustained through collective action. We have started to engage our indigenous peoples as active partners in development processes. It is now within our hands to fire up partnerships and make sure this convergence works.” See what women can do when they set their minds to achieve a goal.