Arlene Amak, 33, a village leader from Arakan town in Cotabato province, lights an offering during the observance of the death anniversary of tribal leader Macliing Dulag in Manila on April 23. (Photo by Vincent Go)
Tribal people in the Philippines have called on candidates in next month's presidential election to heed the plight of indigenous peoples and include them on their electoral agenda.
"The lives of 15 million indigenous peoples are in the hands of the next president," said Kakay Tolentino, national coordinator of Bai Indigenous Women Network.
"We ask them to include the tribal people's agenda," said Tolentino, a leader of the Dumagat tribe.
On April 24, tribal people from around the Philippines marked the 32nd death anniversary of Macliing Dulag, a tribal leader from the northern Cordillera region.
Dulag led the Kalinga and Bontok tribes against a World Bank-funded dam project in the 1970s until his death on April 24, 1980, at the hands of soldiers.
Tolentino said Dulag's call for an end to the "plundering of lands and resources" and military operations in tribal areas remain applicable today.
Data gathered by the indigenous peoples' group Katribu, show 89 incidents of killings of tribal people, 52 cases of forced evacuations of tribes, and six incidents of bombings of indigenous communities, since Benigno Aquino became president in 2010.
The group also said that charges were also filed against 169 tribal people accused of supporting communist rebels.
Tribal people were among the 6,000 protesters who demanded food aid from the government in the southern province of Cotabato on April 1, amid an ongoing drought due to El Nino.
Armed policemen dispersed the protesters triggering a clash that resulted in the death of three people and the arrest 80 farmers and tribesmen.
Arlene Amak, a tribal woman from Cotabato, said she could endure hunger brought about by the drought "but it is different when you see your children going hungry."
"We just wanted rice and did not expect to be treated so violently by the local government," Amak told ucanews.com, referring to the April 1 protest.
On April 25, charges were filed against 94 national and local officials, police and military officers for their involvement in the April 1 dispersal of protesters.