MPC has advanced the phase of its advocacy towards the protection and preservation of the rights of cultural communities and indigenous peoples. It has committed to accompany them in their continuing, difficult struggle for the protection of their rights and the preservation of their cultures. It has extended various forms of interventions not only for the purpose of preventing unlawful intrusions into their ancestral domains, but also to help them articulate and embrace a more empowering concept of development in their respective communities.
The centuries-old struggle of the indigenous peoples for the full enjoyment of their rights over their ancestral domains is the same struggle that the Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC) has fought for since its creation in 2001. While laws may have been formulated to safeguard the rights of the indigenous peoples, there is actually no significant changes that have transpired in the landscape. These laws have not tempered the rugged political and economic contours that had characterized the landscape since the advent of modernity.
Many of the indigenous peoples have been relegated into the peripheries of the country's economic and political frontiers, with their cultures and tradition on the verge of extinction and are now literally harping for breath. There are still a lot of them who continue to be dispossessed of their lands. Some mining and other large-scale development projects are being implemented within their ancestral domain without the prior and informed consent of the tribal communities. Some influential and moneyed individuals, taking advantage of their poverty and ignorance, oppress and exploit many of the poorest and the most vulnerable communities of indigenous people in order to give way to their vested private interests. They are the victims of a development aggression that aids inequality.
Thus, MPC has not only involved itself in providing the tribal communities capacity-building support, but also in formulating community-based action plans and legal strategies to effectively protect and prevent the unwarranted encroachments of government projects and programs involving their ancestral lands, without their prior consent and an opportunity to be heard. In addition, MPC has been able to stretch its assistance to effective community campaigns, media works, and social and development, with an end in view of strengthening their respective advocacy that will enable them to fully enjoy the benedictions of the country's natural heritage and of genuine and meaningful development.
While working hand in hand with the indigenous peoples and accompanying them in their daily struggles, MPC has learned to respect and appreciate their ideas, cultures and traditions. Indeed, cultures and traditions are immortal; they do not only trek along with the march of civilization but they are the intrinsic element of civilization. In the process, we learned to recognize their common and distinctive historical and cultural heritage which we should respect and, even, adore because of its eternal beauty.
Thus, MPC believes that they should be empowered so that they can develop and govern themselves in the economic, political, cultural, social and spiritual spheres of development, according to their customary social norms, and so that they may be able to forever free themselves from any assaults the displace them from their land of birth and deprives them of the efficacy of their cultures and traditions.
Now, MPC has directed its assistance to the indigenous peoples in Bukidnon, South Cotabato, and other parts of Mindanao . Every referred case required different approaches. To better understand the nature of each land conflict we resolve, MPC has consulted the leaders and members of the tribal communities through a series of dialogues, conferences, and caucuses. We gave them full opportunity to express their sentiments. We assisted them in the fight against exploitation and oppression, and help them ensure that the benefits that they receive in the processes of development embody their collective aspirations for justice, fairness and equity and are not repugnant to their identity and integrity as a people.