Indigenous cultural communities (ICCs) or indigenous peoples (IPs) remain one of the most vulnerable sectors of Filipino society. At the height of the pandemic, quarantine restrictions hindered their livelihood activities and further exposed them to entities that exploit the IPs’ vulnerable state by threatening their security and infringing upon their rights to ancestral domain. Even as the restrictions presently have eased and the country is moving forward to reach a new state of normal, it is not uncommon to see struggling IPs still risking their safety as they beg on the streets and brave the dangers of the city, far from their ancestral lands. Such a problem had been existing even before the pandemic years.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) notes the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo’s concern regarding this migration of IPs to the urban centers of the country, with some of them ending up homeless or beggars. In this regard, DSWD recently made important decisions: first, to conduct rescue efforts aimed towards the rescue of IPs begging on the streets of Metro Manila and other big cities, and second, to prevent human trafficking and exploitation of IPs through the implementation of the monitoring of points of exit, including piers.
CHR commends the rescue efforts, announced on November 21, 2022, that involve helping IPs return to their home provinces, giving them financial aid amounting to Php10,000 per family, and providing livelihood assistance which seeks to help indigenous communities live sustainably within their ancestral lands. CHR particularly commends the acknowledgement of the DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo that merely sending IPs home is not enough; “the problem is they do not have food and jobs or livelihoods in their place,” he said. “That’s why they keep going back to the NCR and highly urbanized cities to beg.”
Furthermore, the decision of DSWD to send representatives to assess the needs of IP communities and to include community stakeholders in development efforts help uphold the IPs’ rights to self determination and their right to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development, as posited in Article 1 of the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
On the other hand, with regard to the proposed monitoring of points of exit, particularly piers, CHR cautions DSWD in the implementation of this decision. They must take care that in the defense of IPs against exploitation and trafficking, our servants of the law must still keep in mind the IPs’ freedom to movement and right against discrimination; being an IP should not be a basis for preventing passage through ports and transportation centers. As with all law enforcement actions and policy implementations, fair investigations should be conducted to determine if the traveling IPs are indeed victims of trafficking. Informing the IPs that even big cities face economic difficulties might help in persuading them in coordinating with development efforts conducted within their home communities.
Nevertheless, CHR welcomes this coordinated whole-of-nation development effort between DSWD, the Department of Transport (DOTr), the Philippine Coast Guard, and the Philippine National Police. Their intention to defend the IPs against human trafficking and exploitation is in line with protecting their human rights against slavery, servitude, and forced labor. There is a point to Secretary Tulfo’s argument: that those who would deceive IPs into a state of debt by lending them travel money under the false assumption that urban centers (like Metro Manila) would provide them guaranteed economic opportunities are indeed exploitative, if not guilty of trafficking.