PHILIPPINES  Church Works With Indigenous People
To Stop Yuletide Begging
 December 24, 2008 

CALAPAN CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- Indigenous Mangyan men, women and children tapping on car windows and house gates begging for money and gifts around Christmas have been a familiar sight on Calapan City's streets.

Tribal Mangyan people from the mountains beg for goods and money. Basic services barely reach the poor upland communities. The Mangyan are the original inhabitants of Mindoro Island, Philippines. Calapan's apostolic vicar, Bishop Warlito Cajandig, has voiced concern for the well-being of Mangyans, especially the children, who descend the mountains to this city in Oriental Mindoro province, 135 kilometers south of Manila. After an assembly on development in Mangyan communities here on Dec. 16, the bishop told UCA News he worries about their exposure to disease, as well as possibly being hit by cars or jailed for violating rules for pedestrians. Mangyans, Mindoro Island's original inhabitants, were pushed from the lowlands by migrant settlers. The national government's 2000 census says they now comprise about 10 percent of the island's 1 million people.

Bishop Cajandig issued statements in early December discouraging "dole-outs" to Mangyans who roam the streets. He instead recommended that donations to indigenous people be made through parishes. Handing out alms supports the begging culture and damages the cultures of receiver and giver alike, he explained. He also reported seeing Mangyans gambling, smoking and spending their money on alcohol. "Sometimes, when they have much money, they also neglect their farms," he said. Homeless street-dwellers without sanitation facilities also endanger community health, he added. According to the bishop, the government and NGOs need to hold programs for Mangyan communities. During Christmastime, he suggested offering the "gift" of "our presence," because Mangyans need this more than gifts that do not last. Participants at the Dec. 16 event, Kapulungan para sa Lupaing Ninuno (KPLN, Assembly for Ancestral Land), came from all over the province, which covers the eastern half of Mindoro Island. Assembly coordinator Ponyong Kadlos asked people sponsoring Mangyan scholars to encourage them to return and serve their own communities after graduation.

He pointed out that Mangyan communities need help to integrate agricultural technology and marketing techniques into their culture, as well as in planning sustainable ventures. Their "begging culture," he said, stems from imbalanced trading practices, which keep mountain dwellers poor. For example, tribal peoples have to sell their produce at very cheap prices, and Kadlos said this is contrary to the Mangyan tradition of "communitarian living, where nature's bounty is shared equally with one another."

Tribal Mangyan people from the mountains beg for goods and money. Basic services barely reach the poor upland communities. The Mangyan are the original inhabitants of Mindoro Island, Philippines. Mangyan students who came to the meeting from Mount Tabor Mangyan Formation House noted that typhoons also force indigenous people to come down from the mountains. Relief and other aid "rarely reach them," one of them reported. Calapan vicariate, which serves the province, has 17 Catholic schools as well as four centers for the education and formation of Mangyans. Priests of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) also set up the Mangyan Heritage Center, a non-stock, non-profit corporation to preserve and promote Mangyan culture. Governor Arnan Panaligan told UCA News at the meeting that his provincial government works with Church groups in aiding Mangyans. He said his administration supports a scholarship program run by Salesian nuns, and it trains Mangyan youths "in agriculture technology and agri-entrepreneurship so they can engage in productive agriculture right in their upland areas."

The official provincial website says 70 percent of the people do farming and fishing, and the province relies on tourism and agriculture for its income. The main farm products are citrus fruit, bananas, coconuts, rice and peanuts. In the 2006 report of the National Statistical Coordination Board, 47.1 percent of families in the province are said to be living below the poverty level. The national rate was 26.9 percent. The 2008-2009 Catholic Directory says the vicariate has mission areas and parishes in five Mangyan communities. Twenty SVD priests and 74 Religious women from 10 congregations, as well as 42 diocesan priests, serve there.