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Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) expresses their doubt that the government has sincere intentions of finally recognizing the rights of the Bangsamoro to their lands in respect to the Moro people’s self-determination. “After years of armed conflict and the deterioration of peace talks, the national minorities should be wary of such an offer,” Himpad Mangumalas Lumad leader and KAMP spokesman said.

KAMP is a nationwide organization of indigenous peoples.

“The government wants to project that they recognize the Bangsamoro peoples’ right to their lands. However, GMA’s track record alone contradict this portrayal,” Mangumalas said in a press conference.

According to the group, insincerity “reeks” off the Memorandum of Agreement between the government and the Moro rebels. “While distracting the MILF, the government is smuggling foreign companies into the oil-rich Liguasan Marsh, part of the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. And we are yet to see the American troops waving goodbye,” Mangumalas remarked.

“The GRP is in no place to claim that they have accepted and re-established their recognition of the rights of the Bangsamoro, we see it as a mere ploy to re-introduce charter change,” Mangumalas further stated.

KAMP maintains that the government has no capability in resolving the armed insurgency; much less recognizing the rights of the Bangsamoro.  “The roots of the armed conflict are age-old and entrenched in the very base of our society. Even after the MoA signing, the Bangsamoro has many obstacles to pass before achieving lasting peace in Mindanao.” The largest of these obstacles, according to the group, is that the government will not render the Bangsamoro’s aspirations more important than the interests of multinational companies eyeing the island’s rich resources.

“We have grave doubts that the Arroyo government will grant these rights to our Moro brothers” lamented Mangumalas

KAMP also assessed the state of the country’s national minorities, the indigenous and Moro peoples.

“The indigenous people have long been suffering from the neglect and inutility of Arroyo government, the “special care and attention in this great hour of need” that GMA profess in her SONA does not trickle down to the indigenous people” say Himpad

“What she has is special care and attention to sell our land and resources. And this is the special gift she has given to us on this International Day of Celebration of the World’s Indigenous Peoples”.  Himpad pertaining to the onslaught that pseudo-development project brought to the indigenous people.

“The government’s sponsoring of foreign-funded aggressive development projects in various IP communities remains a constant source of insecurity to the life of national minorities. For many years, the level of encroachment to indigenous people’s ancestral lands developed from bad to worst. It already resulted to massive displacements of thousands of indigenous peoples to their ancestral land” Mangumalas explain.

“The rights of the indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands and self-determination have not is a continuing struggle. Ironically, we have received serious blows to our rights as a people under GMA’s presidency,” Mangumalas shared.

KAMP condemns the entry of various mining outfits and projects that encroach in ancestral domains. #

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