A ‘lumad’ exodus every holiday season
By Jeffrey M. Tupas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:56:00 12/27/2008
Filed Under: indigenous people, Festive Events (including Carnivals)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Every night since the first week of December, the public gymnasium of Barangay Mintal in Davao City’s Calinan District smacks of a flee market: One must holler to be heard or force oneself to get through the crowd of more than 5,000 Manobo and Bagobo peoples, mostly children.
Add up the countless sacks of used clothing, second-hand toys and kitchenware, the scene creates an illusion of wide space cramped in a box.
Most of the children suffer from ailments as a result of congestion. So far, a 2-month-old boy and another child have died from severe diarrhea.
Through the years, the episode has been played out. “Lumad†people from the upland villages flock to the city during the Christmas season. They dance and try to sing songs in their native tongue, and be as colorful as their worn-out but heirloom outfits—in exchange for “rilip†(relief goods).
Stories behind exodus
But they do not always get the goods and sometimes end up being ridiculed by the lowlanders.
The stories behind the exodus, however, confirm the poverty gripping those who first inhabited the city.
They believe that asking or begging would somewhat ease their plight, the reason why they sell root crops or backyard animals for fare in going to town.
“If we will not do this, how can we be able to buy clothes? How do you think we will be able to buy rice? This is our sideline while we wait for the corn to be harvested,†said Marlin Mandaruay, a resident of Bukidnon.
“If we rely only on farming, there is not a slight chance that we will be able to buy basic stuff like clothes, salt, sugar and coffee … We are not choosy. They can even hand us down their rugs and we will gladly accept them and wear them.â€
Mandaruay and the other “lumad†inside the gymnasium fall in line to get food rations containing two kilos of rice, two sardines and two noodle packs.
Over the past years, the city government has welcomed the indigenous carolers, feeding and sheltering them. According to the City Social Services and Development Office, at least 8,000 families from the upland villages of Marilog, Calinan, Paquibato and Toril districts to as far as Bukidnon are now in the city. (The other transients occupy gymnasiums in Buhangin and Bankerohan.)
City program
When Mandaruay and her family arrived in Davao City two weeks ago, they saw the harshness of some house owners whom they expected to be accommodating.
“Some people do not give us anything. But there are those who goad us and we would only go away feeling insulted. You know, if they cannot give us anything, it is fine with us. We do not insist. We are only asking for their compassion,†she said.
But while they go around the city and perform for “pinaskuhan†(gifts), other lumad refuse to join them, mortified at the practice that they see alien to their culture and tradition.
Arturo Gumbay and about 40 families from Kamaymana in Marilog are staying put. And so is the family of Mamayok Oribawan, a Pulangion Manobo from Pinamula, Kibawi Bukidnon.
“The indigenous peoples do not celebrate Christmas. It is not in our tradition. What we are doing is we are celebrating with the government because it is the government who really shows us kindness,†said Oribawan.
“They used Christmas as an instrument of begging,†said Pedro Ingay, of Sitio Bulawanon, Barangay Magsaysay, also in Marilog.
Because they are in the city to celebrate the festival with the Christians, Gumbay said they were waiting for the food packs being distributed by the government.
Councilor Myrna Dalodo-Ortiz, one of the officials actively involved in the city’s “lumad†programs, said the food rationing was meant to discourage the people from going house-to-house.
“We want to erase the practice of begging because they are not supposed to beg. The sad part is when they experience being mocked and derided by the public as they perform dances and songs in exchange for a few coins,†she said.
Show of affection
“It is sad because they are supposed to be the people who are indigenous to Davao City … they are the ones who own Davao and they are up there in the mountains now, living in conditions of poverty,†she said.
A paper prepared by anthropology students Elton Ydel, Dae Angelo and Jessie Varquez Jr. of the University of the Philippines-Mindanao, noted that “the lumad are simply doing a pamarayeg (a show of affection) from the arangan (well-off or rich).â€
“Sheer wanderlust and the attraction of this city of lights might have also pushed them to move down for a visit in this welcoming season. There are locations in the uplands facing the central business area of Davao where the city appears like a thousand fireflies at night,†they said.
The paper also pointed how a son of a Matigsalog Datu joined the throng to the city even against the will of his father who said it was “shameful†for their family.
“His only bargain to his datu father is simply that he will not do any panaygon (caroling) but only to wait for gifts from [Davao City] Mayor [Rodrigo] Duterte,†it said.
According to Myfel Paluga, head of the UP-Mindanao’s anthropology department, one of the realities behind the panaygon is the poverty that the “lumad†face in their hinterland villages.
“They’re really poor and if they have lands, these lands have been displaced from their lands by aggressive forms of developments. There is no dignity in begging but some of our lumad sisters and brothers no longer think of this because what’s more important for them is how will they be able to feed their children,†Paluga said.
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