THE STRUGGLE OF PHILIPPINE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Indigenous people across the globe have engaged in a constant struggle to take control of natural resources and land against intrusion by external developers, state interest and commercial pressures brought up by practices such as mining and agribusiness (Meilasari-Sugiana, 2018). The main purpose of this research paper is to discuss how Thomas Pogge's argument on the Global Justice applies to the case of indigenous people from the Philippines and their struggle to protect their natural resources. The paper will use a designed case study to demonstrate the enactment gap between the indigenous peoples' rights in practice and law and the role of stakeholders in safeguarding the land belonging to the indigenous group. A case study of Higaonon indigenous tribe was selected for the study due to various mining and palm oil agribusiness activities in the region and the struggle to retain the land. The research methodology involved gathering information from tribal leaders' representatives and members of the focus groups and researching previous informant interviews with governmental bodies and non-governmental organizations on the matter in question. The study results show conflicting interests among different government bodies; laws and mandate of various government bodies are contradicting resulting in poor coordination between them. It is also noted that there is a lack of political will and resources to implement the provisions in the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act. The indigenous peoples' land tenure insecurity is also found to be a disunity factor.