This AGILA is Readying to Fly

Apo Governance and Indigenous Leadership Academy (AGILA)

Norma Mapansa-Gonos

AGILA stands for Apo Governance and Indigenous Leadership Academy.

AGILA is about the enduring dream of indigenous peoples to establish a training
center that would form leaders who are deeply rooted in indigenous culture as well
as fully equipped to face the future.
My personal engagement with AGILA dates back to a number of years ago
when Fr. Albert Alejo SJ requested me to serve as its project director. And it has
been an uphill climb from the very start in terms of finding the right site for the
project and begging for the much-needed bridge fund. Fortunately, Ateneo de
Davao University (AdDU) has offered us an office space, with internet and other
amenities. Thanks to Fr. Joel Tabora SJ, AdDU president and Mr. Benjie Lizada who
serves as chair of both AdDU and AGILA Boards of Trustees. Two Jesuit Provincials,
Fr. Tony Moreno SJ and then Fr. Jun Viray SJ have assigned a young Jesuit priests to
work with AGILA and has committed a two-year provision of honorarium for its lone
staff. Fr. Jomari Manzano SJ attended our opening ritual at the foot of Mount Apo,
and now Fr. Bros Flores SJ continues to link the project to the Jesuit Roadmap to
Mindanao.
Despite the difficulties, I believe that AGILA will take off soon, because it has
a clear vision, a target marginalized population, a convincing strategy, and now, a
more secure location on the foothills of Mount Apo, the home of the Bagobo,
Tagabawa, and the Obo-Manovu tribal communities as well as the legendary
Philippine Eagle.

Why establish a leadership formation center?

Some might ask why is there a need for a special IP leadership institute, when we
can go the country’s known development institutions. This is my point. There is no
center for indigenous leadership that is managed by indigenous peoples. Also, IP
leadership is encompassing and is not learned from Universities. Rather, it is
developed from journeying with elders in a environment that offers a feeling of
belongingness and connectedness with the forest, the land and nature.
The indigenous communities’ paradigm of wellbeing is often lumped with
mainstream development template. In schools, despite the IP Education National
Policy Framework of the Department of Education [DO 62, s of 2011], IP children are
not honed with skills and knowledge that nurture their cultural integrity as people
and as community. Their Indigenous Political Structure (IPS) is not as accepted in
practice. Mainstream policies prevail.
Yes, the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA), recognizes that: “Indigenous
Peoples have the right to determine and decide priorities for development affecting
their lives, beliefs, institutions, and spiritual well-being.” [Sec 17, Chapter IC, IPRA].
Despite all these laws, the IPs continue to lag behind in terms of appropriate,
culture-based, and appropriate development.
Thus, AGILA aspires to serve as a premier institution that provides indigenous
leadership formation for the indigenous youth to preserve and strengthen
indigenous knowledge and practices on culture-based sustainable economy,
resource management, governance, and spirituality. It shall also be a convergence
point in regenerating, cultivating, harnessing, and propagating partnerships and
best practices among diverse indigenous people’s economic, political and cultural
practices and institutions. It is envisioned to be a training ground for cultural
sensitivity to non-IPs, including government executives, researchers, tourists, and
economic planners. The urgency for AGILA to soar high is NOW.

Why is it difficult to establish a leadership formation center for indigenous

peoples?
This is the same question that IP elders ask in many consultations and sharing
sessions. Why is it easy for the mainstream population to build their own centers for
learning, but difficult for the indigenous peoples to even dream of having their own
leadership academy? Those who want to become military generals can go to the
vast Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in Baguio. Those inclined with the arts can
go to the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) in Mount Makiling. For
government executives, they go to the Development Academy of the Philippines
(DAP) in Tagaytay. For upcoming business leaders, there is the Asian Institute of
Management (AIM) in Makati, among many others. Our Muslim brothers have their
Bangsamoro Development Authority (BDA), and now they have BARMM. Those who
want to become pastors and priests have seminaries and Bible schools. Even
carabao scientists are luckier, because they have a huge Carabao Center in Nueva
Ecija.
How about us, the indigenous peoples? Where do we go when we want to
come together and train our young leaders to become experts in indigenous
governance and leadership, or train our youth in combining local wisdom in caring
for the environment with technical ways of farming and watershed management, or
enhance our vernacular ways of conflict resolution, peace building and negotiations,
and disaster management? AGILA is the answer.

AGILA has found its nest in Mount Apo Sandawa

The social preparation has taken long because of the need to journey with the host
community based on their customary rules. The process has tried to make sure that
every member of the tribe understands the nature and the goal of this innovative
project. IP elders have defined membership to the Board before AGILA acquired its
legal personality.
With the Indigenous Peoples People’s Rights Act (IPRA) as its basic
operational framework, AGILA has complied with the required free prior and
informed consent consultations and has forged a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)
with the Obo-Manovu tribal community in Sitio Tausuvan, Bongolanon, Magpet,
North Cotabato. With its huge waterfalls, panoramic view, thick forests, sacred
grounds, and a fascinating trekking route to the peak of Mount, the site promises to
be a source of energies for the training of leaders who are both deeply rooted in
indigenous culture as well as fully equipped to face the future.
Aside from Tausuvan, the Obo Manovu of Datu Sicao in Davao City and the
Tagabawa-Bagobo of Makilala in Cotabato have also expressed their desire to
host the AGILA training center through a community petition.

AGILA will offer programs clustered into key result areas:

a) Leadership and Governance Development Program. This module aims
to strengthen and enhance indigenous political leadership and institutions.
This also includes providing technical expertise on resource management,
governance, policy analysis, social advocacy, and partnership with
government agencies, nongovernment organizations, academic institutions,
and social movements both local and international.
b) Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Program.
This module provides Technical Trainings in program implementation and
project management with ancestral domains. Also, under this is Social
Entrepreneurship for IPs for the engagement in social entrepreneurship in
support of the aspirations and needs of IPs, starting from the Mount Apo
Sandawa indigenous communities and reaching out to other ethnographic
regions in Mindanao.

c) IKSP Protection, Preservation, and Regeneration. This concerns IP

Knowledge Development, which aims to generate knowledge relevant to IPs’
rights and well-being through research and communication. Its IKSP
Preservation, Partnerships and Best Practices shall serve as a convergence
point in cultivating, harnessing, and propagating partnerships and best
practices among diverse indigenous people’s economic, political and cultural
practices. The foundation for this is the Nurturing of Indigenous Worldview
and Spirituality, which instills a profound reverence for the land, the
environment and all of creation, as manifested in our rituals, chants, folklore,
crafts, laws, and other tangible and intangible cultural resources.
AGILA is now calling for partnership
AGILA offers exciting avenues for collaboration in the construction of the
training facilities and the development of springs and waterfalls, trees orchards and
ritual areas, agro-forestry farms and nurseries, and social enterprise zones. Also
envisioned are: Ethno-restaurant featuring indigenous culinary arts, Eco-educational
facilities, with canopy walk, trekking routes and camping sites, and a safe parking
lot; Transport, communication and energy provisions, heavy-duty car, improved
access road, renewable sources of energy, and heritage center.

AGILA also welcomes partnership for crafting modules and training of

trainors, both for indigenous leaders and other duty holders, with focus on
strengthening political leadership and political institutions, social entrepreneurship,
disaster adaptation, ancestral domain sustainable and management planning, agro-
forestry and peace advocacy. We also need cultural sensitivity modules for other
stakeholders which can be designed for government agencies and civil society
groups, for academics and artists, and even for religious, medical and security
practitioners.

This may sound ambitious, but a no-nonsense solidarity work with indigenous
peoples must go beyond donating mono-block chairs and semi-useful relief goods,
beyond providing partial scholarships and short-term projects, and it must definitely
not be limited to perennial protest marches. Nobody can deny that so much
resources have been poured into so many retreat houses and sports centers, to
business schools and entertainment hubs, to church renovations and even to
political and military operations. Why should we always be minimalist when dealing
with the people who protect our natural environment, nourish our cultural heritage,
provide spirituality for a holistic view of development, and connect us with both our
past and our future? Indigenous Peoples deserve to have their own leadership and
management academy.

We turn to all groups or individuals who profess faith in God, Magbavaya, to

compassionate kind-hearted and generous people, to open their hearts to our
laments and our dreams, to lend a hand to what we have initiated, and maybe to
listen to the voice of our ancestors from the abyss, worried about how this dream
could come true for the next generations. I have faith that AGILA can make it,
because the people behind it are not new to social development and IP work. The
ancestral land is now open. The tribal community is ready. The most opportune time
has come. Let’s please help AGILA fly!

__________________________________________________________________________

Ms. Norma Mapansa Gonos, a full-blooded Mandaya, is the director of the Apo Governance and
Indigenous Leadership Academy (AGILA). She has served as Commissioner of the National Commission
on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and has been a consultant to government and nongovernment
organizations on indigenous peoples’ concerns, including education, peace and development. She was
also the first director of the Davao-based Institute for Indigenous Peoples’ Education (IIPE), one of the
precursors of the Indigenous People’s Education Program of the Department of Education. E-mail:
agila.ipgovernance@gmail.com

POSSIBLE QUOTE TO BE HIGHLIGHTED

“A no-nonsense solidarity work with indigenous peoples must go beyond donating

mono-block chairs and semi-useful relief goods, beyond providing partial
scholarships and short-term projects…Nobody can deny that so much resources
have been poured into so many retreat houses and sports centers, to business
schools and entertainment hubs, to church renovations and even to political and
military operations. Why should we always be minimalist when dealing with the
people who protect our natural environment, nourish our cultural heritage, provide
spirituality for a holistic view of development, and connect us with both our past
and our future? Indigenous Peoples deserve to have their own leadership and
management academy.”