Narrative Report

NARRATIVE
REPORT
(GE 10 Philippine Indigenous Community)
Topic: Exclusion and discrimination against the Indigenous People

Communities Fishery Rights
Group 5:
Trexy Asis
Louise Chua
Hyacent Baguio
Trixia Nadine Anumbay
Section: BEED 1A
Instructor: Sir Hanzel Plaza
Exclusion and Discrimination against the Indigenous
People Communities Fishery Rights
The term ‘indigenous peoples’ refers to us, the more than twelve million descendants of
the original inhabitants of this archipelago who have somehow managed to resist
centuries of colonization and in the process have retained their own customs, traditions
and life ways. In the Philippines, IPs have been subject to historical discrimination and
marginalization from political processes and economic benefit. They often face
exclusion, loss of ancestral lands, displacement, pressures to and destruction of
traditional ways of life and practices, and loss of identity and culture. Traditional fishing
rights (TFR) is one of the notable mentions of the President in his recent State of the
Nation Address. With the recent incident involving Filipino fisherman in the West
Philippine Sea, it is imperative that this is given attention.
In the Philippines, as elsewhere, indigenous peoples face multiple issues in securing
their rights to fish in their coastal area, including lack of tenure and legal recognition, of
their traditional rights in national constitutions and laws, discrimination and culturally
insensitive policies and development. One of those indigenous people who face multiple
issues in securing their rights to fish in their coastal area is Tagbanua. Tagbanua
represent the historic struggles of other indigenous peoples in the Philippines in
providing policy options towards their recognition, self-determination, and governance in
managing natural resources.
There are 3 factors that explain the ecological balance in Coron Island until the mid-20 th
century: a low population vis-à-vis the resource base, a subsistence economy, and
cultural norms that made it taboo for the Tagbanua to indiscriminately exploit their forest
and coastal resources. During the early 1970s, however, the municipal government
sequestered many clan-caves when the Tagbanua failed to pay the taxes imposed on
them.
Based on the narratives generated from oral histories, in-depth interviews, archival
documents, and small-group discussions, these environmental inequalities were rooted
in the misconceptions by non-indigenous claimants regarding the authenticity of
indigenous identity of the Tagbanua, coupled by the inaction or conflicting actions of the
state at the local and national levels. Based on those claims they conducted because
there is no fairness that equality isn’t present it resulted for wrong thinking about the
identity of the Tagbanua’s. The narratives of environmental inequality among the
Tagbanua unnfold as they encounter social and environmental issues that threaten
them with the degradation or loss of their ancestral lands due to land prospecting
(Dalabajan 1998) as well as overexploitation of marine resources. For what is being
addressed about the inequality among the Tagbanua’s that is being spread while they
are facing other issues or to be called panlipunang isyu causes it to loss of their lands
not just only lands but also so much exploitation in marine resources o yamang dagat.
When the municipal waters of Coron were opened to commercial-scale fishing after
1947, fishing provided a steady employment to the people in Coron. The catch fish
industry supplies grouper, cavalla,fusilier, gold-lined spinefoot,mackerel scad, mackerel,
squid and anchovy, both local and international markets. Coron’s live fish industry
supplies Japan and nearby countries with various species including crocus clam
(Tridacna crocea), whose daily harvestable volumes by Japanese commercial fishers
are highly regulated by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development
After 1947 municipal waters of coron were open to commercial fishing which results
goodness because the people in Coron especially those fishermen because they can
work already there. Then there is an interaction that happens both in local and
international markets because of it. That Coron supplies various species in different
countries particularly in Japan.
Coron’s fishing industry also encouraged migrants from nearby provinces to work as
fishers in Coronvi. This influx pushed the Tagbanua to small and remote islands like
Tara. The Tagbanua distinguish these migrant workers either as “Bisaya” (from the
Visayan region) or more generically as “unat” (straight-haired) or “dayo” (not from here).
Moreover, with the opening up of Coron’s municipal waters, the illegal encroachment by
commercial trawlers became commonplace. Problems related to illegal encroachment
into municipal waters is one of the most difficult and widespread issues in managing
coastal resources in the Philippines (Eder 2005). In Tara, the encroachment of these
commercial fishers, combined with the influx of migrant workers and later on of land
prospectors, brought unprecedented threats to the traditional livelihood and ancestral
domain of the Tagbanua.

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NARRATIVE

Topic: Exclusion and discrimination against the Indigenous People

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