Mankind is the product of his ancestors.

We are not who are we today if not

because of our ancestors – the indigenous people. For that fact alone, they must
be protected.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms the inherent dignity, equality,
and inalienable rights of all members of the human family. The rights of all
members of indigenous populations are included in this declaration.

There is no rigid definition of what makes a group Indigenous, but the United
Nations and the International Labour Organization have outlined a few
characteristics that usually define an Indigenous group. Indigenous people
descended from the pre-colonial/pre-invasion inhabitants of our region, maintain
a close tie to our land in both our cultural and economic practices, suffer from
economic and political marginalization as a minority group and is considered
Indigenous if it defines itself that way.

It is estimated that there are more than 370 million indigenous people spread
across 70 countries worldwide. Practicing unique traditions, they retain social,
cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the
dominant societies in which they live. Spread across the world from the Arctic to
the South Pacific. They are the descendants - according to a common definition
- of those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when
people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later became
dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means.

In the Philippines, Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples refer to a

group of people or homogenous societies identified by self-ascription and
ascription by others, who have continuously lived as organized community on
communally bounded and defined territory, and who have, under claims of
ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such
territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions and other
distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to political, social and
cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures, became
historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. ICCs/IPs shall likewise
include peoples who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent
from the populations which inhabited the country, at the time of conquest or
colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures, or
the establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own
social, economic, cultural and political institutions, but who may have been
displaced from their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside their
ancestral domains.

According to the Republic Act No. 8371, known as, “AN ACT TO RECOGNIZE,
PROTECT AND PROMOTE THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS CULTURAL
COMMUNITIES/INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, CREATING A NATIONAL COMMISSION ON
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, ESTABLISHING IMPLEMENTING MECHANISMS,
APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES” the State shall
recognize and promote all the rights of Indigenous Cultural
Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) hereunder enumerated within the
framework of the Constitution. The State shall recognize, respect and protect the
rights of ICCs/IPs to preserve and develop their cultures, traditions and institutions.
It shall consider these rights in the formulation of national laws and policies. The
State shall recognize, respect and protect the rights of ICCs/IPs to preserve and
develop their cultures, traditions and institutions. It shall consider these rights in the
formulation of national laws and policies.

In Bicol Region, there are notable Indigenous communities that the NCIP protects.
In Rapu-Rapu…