SHIFTING POWER DYNAMICS: VICTIMS TO EXPERTS
“There is a critical difference between going through the empty ritual of participation and having the real power needed to affect the outcome of the process. [...] [w]ithout redistribution of power [participation] is an empty and frustrating process for the powerless. It allows the powerholders to claim all sides were considered, but makes it possible for only some [...] to benefit” (Minter et al, 2014) Through the review of energy policy in the country, critiques of acts like NIPAS are riddled with its lack of enforcement and muddled, overlapping jurisdictions that make it difficult to navigate acquiring the right protections within the state-defined legal framework (modeled after the US) for indigenous populations, subsistence farmers and long time occupants of the land. The need to prove with “evidence” their rights to the land can be a barrier enough to stifle opposition against any proposed development and even if proper documentation was acquired, history proves that plans may continue anyways, no matter the monetary and human cost. In 1993, land disputes over a rocky 118-hectare parcel on the hillside land outside of Cebu City pitted 349 subsistence farmers that claimed to have occupied the land to grow corn since the late 1930s against Aznar Enterprises, Inc and the Santa Lucia Realty Development Corporation who sought to develop the land for upper-class residences and a golf course (Eder, 1994). Eder reports that the farmers claimed to qualify to receive land titles
under the Operation Land Transfer (OLT), a Marcos-era land reform program created under PD 27, but was stifled by relevant government agencies (the Department of Agrarian Reform, DAR, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources) who were under pressure from business interests. Development proceeded (incremental clearing of the disputed area) despite active court injunctions and restraining orders by the farmers (assisted by local NGOs) and Aznar-St. Lucia group’s lack of legally-required permits from DAR and DENR. When two farmers were shot and murdered on June 7, 1993, it was widely believed to be a representation of how intimidation and violence escalated at the site———unfortunately not the only incidence when it comes to past and ongoing land disputes in the country (Eder, 1994). The story of these farmers is mirrored by indigenous land claims to ancestral lands, both in past and present. Earlier studies into the limits of indigenous participation, such as the Agta and the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park——— the Philippines’ largest protected area, demonstrate that “formalizing indigenous participation in protected area management is not enough to break through existing power structures that inhibit marginalized stakeholders to defense of their interests in natural resources against those of more powerful actors” (Minter et al, 2014). The Lumad people, the indigenous groups of the Mindanao region in Southern People are among the most vocal, thereby most reported and in turn, most threatened———at present, there are international humanitarian calls to “Free the Lumad 26,” calling for the immediate release of 26 Lumad students, volunteer teachers,
