Significance to nation

They conserve and restore forests and natural resources

Indigenous peoples see themselves as connected to nature and as part of the same system as the
environment in which they live. Natural resources are considered shared property and are respected as
such. By protecting natural resources, like forests and rivers, many indigenous communities help
mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Indigenous territories hold 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.

Preserving biodiversity is essential for food security and nutrition. The genetic pool for plants and animal
species is found in forests, rivers and lakes and pastures. Living naturally sustainable lives, indigenous
peoples preserve these spaces, helping to uphold the biodiversity of the plants and animals in nature.

While Indigenous Peoples own, occupy, or use a quarter of the world’s surface area, they safeguard 80
percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity. They hold vital ancestral knowledge and expertise on how
to adapt, mitigate, and reduce climate and disaster risks.

Problem

Indigenous Peoples often lack formal recognition over their lands, territories and natural resources, are
often last to receive public investments in basic services and infrastructure and face multiple barriers to
participate fully in the formal economy, enjoy access to justice, and participate in political processes and
decision making. This legacy of inequality and exclusion has made Indigenous peoples more vulnerable
to the impacts of climate change and natural hazards, including to disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.
Vulnerabilities to the pandemic are exacerbated in some cases by the lack of access to national health,
water, and sanitation systems, the shutting down of markets, and mobility restrictions that have greatly
impacted their livelihoods, food insecurity, and well-being.

Plow farming has brought the Gaddang at the threshold of modern technology as they make use of
chemical fertilizers, pesticides, weed killers, and the hand tractor or mechanical plow, all of which must
be purchased. His entry into the cash economy requires hired labor for the harvesting and milling, and
farm-to-market transport. Thus, the farmer’s net income is only 25% of his gross income.

Before this, they had been generally cut off from town centers. As dictated by distance and the weather,
the journey used to involve a one-to-four-day hike along dirt roads and footpaths.

Kolak, or the traditional trading partnership with non-relatives. The kolak, literally “sibling,” is forged
when two friends or acquaintances but non-relatives agree to enter into a trading relationship with each
other.

*Legal landownership and inheritance have become major concerns for the Gaddang, whose economic
system is still largely agricultural.
*Indigenous people are widely recognized as vulnerable, and are often socially and economically
disadvantaged. Many live in isolated communities with few government services available.

Situation of Indigenous Peoples in the COVID-19 Pandemic

39. Indigenous peoples are vulnerable to the COVID-19 spread due to their limited access to

adequate medicine, lack of access to health and other social services. Their lack of access to

adequate health services has put indigenous families and their children at risk to coronavirus.

Other factors such as food insecurity and malnutrition have compromise their resistance to viral

diseases and predispose them further to more serious health conditions. Based on past

experiences, they tend to be excluded in humanitarian and other government services when

natural disasters and other calamities occur. With this pandemic, it is no different. Due to their

marginal position in society, indigenous peoples are not often represented and part of major

decision making process which may result in serious neglect when the whole country is in crisis

and there is an intense need for health services and essential supplies. Therefore, it is the task

of the government to ensure that no one is left behind and are protected from the threat of COVID-

19.

Indigenous peoples continue to face multiple-discrimination and have lower social and

economic capital. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is evident that these groups are the most

vulnerable.

The recent declared enhanced community quarantine posed a challenge for indigenous

groups who are heavily involved in the market economy and those who live in the NCR where

their economic activities are based outside the home. The enhanced community quarantine

means limited movement for them. There are indigenous communities who are not used to

stocking food and they do not have the economic capacity to stay at home for an extended period

of time. They need to be mobile to look for food for their families every single day. For indigenous

communities who are relying in cash crops, they are having a difficult time to sell their produce.

The agricultural buyers are not allowed to go to the communities during the lockdown period. For
those who are near the market, the lack of transportation also hinders them to sell their produce.

In general, indigenous groups they have low economic capital, the enhanced community

quarantine poses a big challenge.

*Concerned indigenous peoples had been raising concern on the continuous destruction of portions of
their domain through the exploration and drilling operation of the mining company which is in violation
of the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).

Indigenous

peoples experience seasonal to chronic food shortages during the year. A major factor

causing food insecurity and poverty among indigenous peoples is the loss of ancestral

land due to displacement by development projects and extractive industries including

mining, dams, logging or natural causes. Another factor is environmental degradation –

destruction of forests, pollution of waters and loss of agrobiodiversity as a result of

impacts of extractive industries and agriculture modernization.

Policy intervention

In 1983, a dam, the biggest in Asia at the time, was built across the Magat, also known as Cagayan River.
It brought about some degree of modernization for the Gaddang.

A farm-to-market road connected the towns of Isabela to the Gaddang villages, resulting in the daily
exchange of goods from and to the Gaddang people.

The four-day hike has been reduced to a 12-hour bus ride, and a day’s walk on a dirt road is now an
hour’s jeepney ride on dirt-and-gravel road.

, has been replaced by the creditor-debtor relationship between the relatively prosperous and the poor
Gaddang, defined as a family with less than two hectares of land. The poor farmer takes out a loan at
20% interest per six months and uses the borrowed money to buy the essential farm supplies and
materials from the same moneylender. Thus, the moneylender gets double compensation for the sale of
the farm supplies and the interest earned from the loan.

*This relatively recent awareness has brought the Gaddang into the network of various legal processes
such as birth and death registration, land titling, taxation, and all other obligations that must be fulfilled
by Filipino citizens to enjoy their rights and privileges as such.
In 2014, the provincial government of Nueva Vizcaya was cited for its programs and services for the
various indigenous peoples of the province. In the same year, the Gaddang of Solano and Bayombong
towns were conferred the Certificate of Confirmation by the National Commission on Indigenous
Peoples (NCIP), which represents state recognition of indigenous people’s right to governance and self-
determination.

*Therefore, it is the responsibility of the government to develop program assistance for

indigenous groups to: (i) access medical assistance without any discrimination; (ii) access

emergency aid regardless of status; and (iii) receive information about COVID-19 on how to

prevent their indigenous families especially their children and the elderly to keep them safe.

Information dissemination should be made available in as many local languages, simple, and

easy to understand on how to prevent the spread of the disease.

Cash grants for COVID-

19 affected poor and

vulnerable groups

specifically 4Ps

beneficiaries delivered

on time.

On March 24, 2020, the Philippine Congress passed Republic Act 11649 or “An Act

Declaring the Existence of a National Emergency Arising from the COVID-19, otherwise known

as the “Bayanihan Heal as One Act”. The law empowered the government to: (i) provide an

emergency subsidy between P5,000 to P8,000 per month to around 18 million low income

households per month for two months; and (ii) implement an expanded and enhanced Pantawid

Pamilyang Pilipino Program, responsive to the need posed by the crisis, and provision of cash

assistance program, through local government units (LGUs) or directly to identified households,

including households working in the informal economy and those who are not currently recipients

of the current Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. The law also empowers the President, to
augment resources and programs that provide support to the poor and most affected population.

Consistent with the law, the government has launched a Social Amelioration Program. The

program, under the leadership of the Office of the President and in coordination with the

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and LGUs, will identify the poorest and

most vulnerable segments of the population and provide cash or in-kind support equivalent to the

established amounts for two months.

*DOH Administrative Order No. 2004-185 (Establishing the Geographically Isolated

and Disadvantaged Areas in Support to Local Health Systems Development). Issued to

address inequity and improve availability as well as access to health resources/services in the

hinterlands or far-flung areas by populations/communities that are marginalized, physically and

socio-economically separated from the mainstream health service delivery system.

Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2913-01 (Guidelines on the Delivery of Basic Health

Services for Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous People). The guidelines that will

address access, utilization, coverage, and equity issues in the provision of basic health care

services for ICCs/IPs to achieve better health outcomes.

21. Universal Health Care /Kalusugan Pangkalahatan (AO 2010-0036). It aims to improve,

streamline and scale-up previous health reform strategies in order to address inequities in health

outcomes by ensuring that all Filipinos, especially those belonging to the lowest income quintiles,

have equitable access to health care.

*NCIP central office to immediately issue the cease and desist order to stop the mining company from
continuously illegally intruding into their domain without their consent to compel the said firm to seek
their consent for their exploration activities.