Dated December 23, 1994, the United Nations General Assembly, in commemoration of the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights’ first meeting on August 9, 1982, by the virtue of the resolution 49/214, decided that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
However, despite the long 29 years of remembering and celebrating this international event, indigenous peoples and communities from all over across the globe still continue to face grave discrimination and violations of their civil, social, and political rights.
According to the United Nations, there are an estimated 476 million indigenous peoples living across 90 countries. Globally, they make up less than 5 percent of the world’s population, however, account to roughly 15 percent of the poorest. Based on the data released by the International Labour Organization, 47% of all indigenous peoples , globally, who are employed have no education, in comparison to the 17% figure of their non-indigenous counterparts. But what could have been worse is way even for women as this gap is wider between the gender spectrum. Also, indigenous peoples are nearly three times as likely to be living in extreme poverty compared to their non-indigenous counterparts. But we could only blame this cyclical phenomenon to the centuries-old marginalization and varying vulnerabilities that the IP communities continue to encounter, suffering from the grave discrimination that has been built on the pedestal since time immemorial from the lack of access to basic and tertiary education, accessible healthcare system, or even digital communications. Even the policies and initiatives enforced by the government in order to cater to these needs of the IPs remain discriminatory and unjust, and the indigenous peoples are still yet to truly achieve an inclusive society where their rights are guaranteed.
These are manifested firsthand on the grounds of Mindanao State University, a premier tertiary educational institution in the halls of Mindanao which was established in the aims of integrating the Muslim and Indigenous Peoples and responding to the so-called “Mindanao Problem.” To date, its core still remains to help accelerate the economic, cultural, socio-political and agro-industrial development of the Muslim and other cultural groups, and preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the region.
However, one of the recurring problems that plague the institution in the status quo, especially the satellite institutions, is the dominating quantity of non-indigenous counterparts from not only within Mindanao but all over across the country seeking admission in the university.
The growing number of students who wish to be admitted endangers the rights and privilege of the indigenous peoples for admission as it continues to narrow down their chances and opportunities for admission, considering that from the 53% acceptance rate of the Mindanao State University- Marawi, 40% from Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology, according to EduRank, this will even widen the gap of the competitive admission process.
In fact, the System Admission and Scholarship Examination (SASE) 2022 for the MSU - General Santos campus recorded approximately 11 thousand 12th graders, and only approximately 2,000 students are going to be admitted.
While there is a need to fully understand that state universities like MSU could not cater all the students who would wish for admission because of the series of challenges faced by the institution such as insufficiency of budget, lack of facilities, and teaching personnel; hence, the competitive admission process. However, the government should make a loose leeway to meet these growing demands of the students to be guaranteed of free and accessible education, especially the people in these marginalized and vulnerable communities. But more so, not only those who underwent the College Bound Program (CBP) are subjected to discrimination and ridicule for not passing the general cutoff score of the SASE, the program itself is also not enough at large to cater to all the IPs who wish to study in the institution.
We have to understand that the SASE is for the privileged students to pass: those who have had a quality foundation of education, and more often than not, these quality education are deprived to indigenous peoples from remote areas.
The institution will never truly attain the central goal of its establishment to aid the ‘Mindanao Problem’ if we only continue to gate-keep accessible education for the few Mindanaoans who can meet these competitive demands for admission.
This is a serious concern that the government and the institution should be cautious about, especially that this will pose larger threats in the long run. Proper mechanisms and more just policies that center their focus on the welfare of the indigenous peoples should be guaranteed to these vulnerable communities.
As we commemorate the International Day for World’s Indigenous Peoples today, may we continuously be reminded that democracy will only remain in the excerpts of our Constitution because we failed to understand that there is a need for us to demarcate theory and practice, and that theory should always be observed in order to meet its core principles. As a democratic country, we should always fight for the welfare of our people, especially those who have been put in the margins since time immemorial. It is now high time to underscore the need for policies that would free our Indigenous Peoples from the enslavement of the class struggle and discrimination, and elevate their living without losing their identity. It has been centuries of inequality since; let this commemoration never just remain on the publication postings of the media, but rather be a reminder that there are still real changes needed to be penetrated inside the system. Now is not the time to procrastinate. It is now or never!
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