MANILA (SE): Archbishop Jose Cabantan of Cagayan de Oro criticised a government move to ban the use of the term “lumad” when referring to indigenous peoples in Mindanao due to its alleged links to communist rebels, according to CBCP News. He was reacting to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples’ [NCIP] resolution denouncing the use of the term and urging the use of their ethnic group names instead.
“The state’s red scare campaign [red-tagging] is now targeting even words,” Archbishop Cabantan said in a statement for the bishops’ Commission on Indigenous Peoples, adding, “Directly associating the word Lumad with the NDF-CPP-NPA [National Democratic Front-Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army] as if this word was coined by the communist rebels and, consequently, banning it from popular usage is a total disservice to the history of the struggles of the indigenous peoples.”
The agency claimed that the word’s “emergency and continued use [are] marred by its association” with the rebels “whose ideologies are not consistent with the cultures, practices and beliefs” of indigenous peoples.
“This is furthest from the historical truth and, thus, the NCIP’s resolution only reveals the Commission members’ ignorance as to how the lumad struggles unfolded in Mindanao in the last 60 years,” Archbishsop Cabantan said.
Directly associating the word Lumad with the NDF-CPP-NPA [National Democratic Front-Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army] as if this word was coined by the communist rebels and, consequently, banning it from popular usage is a total disservice to the history of the struggles of the indigenous peoples.
Archbishop Cabantan
The archbishop noted how the Cebuano word, which means indigenous or native, was actually borne out of the series of meetings between Church groups and indigenous communities since the 1970s.
He pointed out that all the national commission would have had to do was gather all the published and unpublished books articles and documentation to discover how “lumad” entered popular usage.
“A number of these are readily available,” he said.
Archbishop Cabantan called on the NCIP to reconsider its resolution and “not to be derailed in their mandate to serve the [indigenous peoples] of this country by engaging in actions that are only counter-productive and can only lead to fragmentations among our ranks.”
Meanwhile, UCAN reported that a report released on September 26 by Human Rights Watch [HRW] said, “The government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has harassed and threatened union leaders and their members by accusing them of being combatants or supporters of the communist insurgency.”
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The report, Philippines: Dangerous ‘Red-Tagging’ of Labor Leaders, said the practice has led labour activists to withdraw from unions and individual unions to end their affiliations with labor federations critical of the government.
Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at HRW, said: “[the] Philippine government’s sinister and at times deadly practice of ‘red-tagging’ has become a serious threat to labour rights in the country.”
Women were red-tagged three times more than men, with threats of sexual violence frequently reported, indicating a gender-based dimension to red-tagging, the centre said in a repor
Ateneo Human Rights Centre
Several union leaders and members described heightened threats since 2022 against leaders of at least seven unions during collective bargaining, the HRW report mentioned.
It further noted that successive Philippine governments have red-tagged leftist activists, journalists, and human rights defenders, besides the labour activists.
The Ateneo Human Rights Centre recorded 456 red-tagging incidents from January to June 2024 as part of its monitoring project.
Women were red-tagged three times more than men, with threats of sexual violence frequently reported, indicating a gender-based dimension to red-tagging, the centre said in a report.
Carlos Conde, senior researcher at HRW, said cases of red-tagging had surged in the Philippines and the organisation would join other organisations to investigate them.
“Red-tagging of all forms is an issue that is very important to the United Nations. So yes, various Philippine and international groups are definitely pushing these cases to the attention of the various UN agencies and procedures,” Conde said, urging companies whose workers are being red-tagged to make sure they “do not suffer” and “are protected from it.”
Activist lawyer Aaron Pedrosa called on Marcos Jr. to expedite the Human Rights Defenders Bill pending in Congress. The proposed law aims to criminalize red-tagging and to strengthen the legal framework of human rights defense.
