Duterte will not expel Lumads from ancestral lands, says Palace

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is not planning to forcibly remove Lumads or indigenous people from their ancestral land, Malacañang said Monday.

In a speech last week, the president said that he plans to find investors to develop Mindanao's protected ancestral domains.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, however, clarified that bringing in investors does not mean that the Lumads would be expelled from their ancestral land.

"It is not ethnocide. He is not forcibly removing them from ancestral domains," Roque said in a press briefing.

"He (Duterte) has said that in the [Bangsamoro Basic Law] he will seek correction of historical injustice which includes the historical injustice being committed to Lumads because in the previous BBL, they were not consulted on the BBL and they were themselves classified as Moros," the Palace spokesman added.

Roque stressed that the Lumads would decide if they would allow foreign investors to enter their land, as mandated by law.

"Kung ayaw nila hindi sila mapipilit dahil sa batas naman kontrolado nila 'yung mga teritoryo nila na classified as ancestral domains," Roque said.

The Palace spokesperson also explained that Duterte is planning to ask investors to come into ancestral lands to encourage economic activity in the Lumads' territory.

The Philippine government is not violating the rights of Lumads because, under the law, Lumad communities could allow economic activity in their territory, Roque said.

"The ones violating the rights of the Lumads are the NPA because they are forcibly conscripting the Lumads into the NPA. In fact, the statistics is like 80 percent of them are already conscripted by the NPAs and they don’t have a choice because they do it under the barrel of a gun," the spokesperson said.

Opening economic opportunities in Lumad communities would reduce poverty and eventually drive away members of the NPA, according to Malacañang.

On the other hand, a Lumad leader said that they would continue to resist the intrusion of foreign investors into their ancestral land.

"It is not the Lumad who are making trouble. It is your government and the corporations that are making trouble," Datu Jerome Succor Aba, co-chairperson of Sandugo – Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-determination, said in a statement released Friday.