Indigenous people not convinced with SONA - CBCP

MANILA, Philippines - Indigenous people in Mindanao are not convinced with the claims made by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during her eighth State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday. Datu Angkong Limikid, a lumad leader from Maragusan in Compostela Valley, appealed to President Arroyo to fulfill her promises on awarding of Certificates of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT). "She lumped the CADT issuance along with land distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) citing 525,000 hectares of land have been distributed," said in a statement on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website. He added that President Arroyo in her SONA did not specify the actual number of CADTs that have been issued. Limikid also noted that in 2001, the President promised that the government will distribute 100 CADT every year. "The government should hasten the awarding of CADTs. President Arroyo should fulfill her promises made as early as her first SONA," he said. Records from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) show that only 11 CADTs were awarded all over the country. In 2004, NCIP has only awarded 18 CADTs ─ six of which are here in Mindanao, the CBCP said. The IP leaders also criticized the government for the efficient and faster processing of mining applications as compared to CADT. Data furnished by LFC-KsK Davao Office showed that as of December 2007, 240 mining tenements have already been issued in Mindanao. Almost 60 percent of these are within the ancestral domains of the indigenous people. The IPs also conducted the State of the Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA), a three-day gathering of around a hundred indigenous peoples at Camp Alano, Toril in Davao City to expose the real state of the lives of the IPs in Mindanao. - GMANews.TV