“The people have nowhere to go, except their farms,” Timuay Manda quipped.
Timuay Lucenio Manda is the chief tribal chieftain of the Subanen ancestral domain in Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur and heads the Pegsalabukan Gukom de Bayog (PGB), the tribal council of the domain.
“We do pintakasi here. It’s like bayanihan. Everybody helps on somebody’s farm. Look how clean our farms now. We also expanded our farms,” he bragged.
Through the ECQ, IP farmers in the ancestral domain of Bayog harvested what they can from their farms. Bananas, cassava, and other root crops are considerably abundant, encouraging resourcefulness such as cooking recipes out of them to sell.
“But they need money to buy things that they cannot get from their farms,” Timuay Manda said. He said people need cash to meet some basic needs. He felt the pressure in seeing his people suffer. Their rubber produce laid unsold as buyers cannot enter their community. As a chieftain, he has to find ways.
“We are grateful that EcoWEB heeds our plea for assistance. We were able to give aid to 97 families. We gave food packs, and for those who live far deep in the mountains, we gave the equivalent in cash. Our food packs contained 4 kilos of rice, 3 noodles, and one can of sardines. For cash, we gave P300. What we gave is small but it showed them that the tribal leadership cares and would find ways to ease their miseries,” Timuay Manda continued.
As of now, Timuay Manda said they think they can survive this ECQ. The only thing they have to prepare is when ECQ gets lifted by April 24. The tribal leadership surmised that local businesses will find ways to recover their losses. They anticipate a low farm gate price for their produce.
“This is what we will prepare for,” Timuay Manda said. “We are planning to gather the people and guide them on how to face this and survive. I hope EcoWEB will be there to help us on this.”
“I keep on encouraging my people to continue to work in their farms, even though there is the uncertainty of how things will turn out in the next days. We will not let this ECQ pin us down. Rather, we see this as an opportunity to get our priorities straight: and for now, it is our farm,” he finished.
Through the support from Bread for the World, EcoWEB currently works with Timuay Manda and the PGB in strengthening their tribal council, in the application of their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title or CADT, and in establishing social enterprises. The funds extended to the community of Timuay Manda is part of the Gawad Kalasag cash award that EcoWEB received last year for winning the best civil society organization in the Philippines.
