CEBU CITY (MindaNews / 18 May) — In Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland, published in 1865, the phrase “curiouser and curiouser” appears. Which only really means things are getting more and more curious bordering on something increasingly strange.
I am feeling “curiouser and curiouser”, indeed with the issuance of Executive Order No. 8, series of 2023 last May 12, 2023, signed by Governor Atty. Franklin P. Bautista of Davao Occidental. The EO’s title is quite foreboding – An order regulating the entry of organized groups in the province of Davao Occidental without proper coordination of respective local officials.
Invoking two signed laws (R.A. No. 7166 or the Local Government Code and R.A. 8371 or the Indigenous People’s Rights Act), the EO aims to deal with “IP-protected areas crucial to government’s drive to protect and preserve cultural heritage and promote sustainable and responsible tourism through the application of Leave-No-Trace approach.” To attain this goal, the LGU of Davao Occidental intends “to regulate the entry of organized groups, whether formal or informal interest groups who encroach into our IP-protected communities.”
What is curious about the issuance of this EO is its timing. It was signed on May 12, a few days after Ms. Gwyneth Marie M. Vasquez, delivered an impassioned valedictory address at the commencement exercises of the Ateneo de Davao University on May 6. Ms. Vasquez graduated Valedictorian of Batch ’23, finishing BA Anthropology course with the most distinctive honor of being summa cum laude.
(The speech was posted by MindaNews on its website at 10:18 p.m. on May 11)
She began her speech telling the audience about her fieldwork in Matamis, Malita, Davao Occidental. There she met Weweng, a Tagakolu girl, who was a graduating Grade 12 student from Demoloc Valley National High School in Malita. An excerpt from her speech is as follows:
“She (Weweng) hails from a historically marginalized Tagakolu community that continues to be neglected by the state, and deprived of services that it is supposed to offer its citizens.(Italics mine). Her parents have not had any form of mainstream education, and during the time of my fieldwork, they were wage laborers in a land their ancestors used to own and till. I fondly remember strolling through Sitio Matamis with Weweng and the other Tagakolu girls. In a “remote” community with poor infrastructure and intermittent access even to electricity, our main pastime, aside from browsing the internet, was either river-watching or visiting our neighbors.”
No, his Excellency, the Governor was not present at the ADDU commencement exercises to listen to Ms. Vasquez speech. If he were, it would not have been surprising if he took offense as his province’s reputation was at stake and his administration put under a scrutiny. However, this powerful speech – constituted by 1,600+ words – went viral immediately and is still making waves on social media. Not only was it top news, but netizens shared it so many times that even Ms. Vasquez herself was totally surprised how it had gone super-viral.
For sure the computers of the offices of the Provincial Governor in Malita and the employees’ mobile phones would have been flooded with postings of the speech. It would not be surprising that the Governor himself would have known/heard/read the speech himself.
So dear reader, the curiosity stems from what happened on May 6 at ADDU in Davao City and May 12 at the Provincial Capitol in Malita. Is there a connection? An official of a provincial government office – who was contacted (but we would rather not reveal the name for obvious reason) for comments – said there was no connection between the two.
But to make such a statement, this government official seems to be ignorant about the power of social media in this age of information technology. Unless, this person is of the older generation who refuses to learn how to email/get into Facebook or Twitter etc., this person, would have not seen/read Ms. Vasquez’ speech.
We all know that more than the established mass media which in this country has ceased being the activist and courageous media of the Marcos years – broadsheets, TV and radio stations these days have lost their edge to social media. While fake news and misinformation also abound in social media, still it can also speak truth to power. Compared to mass media that ignores many local news at the margins in favor of paying attention to the happenings in the center, news agencies operating virally and netizens can give more attention to what is taking place on the ground.
One is also curious as to why Ms. Vasquez’ speech went viral and will continue to make waves. One could present a few theories. Many of the generation of Ms. Vasquez’ parents/grandparents – veterans of the First Quarter Storm and its aftermath that lasted till 1986 – must have been pleased that there is this young person graduating from an elite Catholic school who is fearless in speaking the truth. There is hope after all among the millennial/Gen Z generations who dare to carry on their legacy of engaged youth demanding radical reforms!
Perhaps during this season of commencement exercises, most of the valedictory and other speeches are so bland and boring, that Ms. Vasquez’ speech stands out as the exception! If one were to make a survey of the content of most of these speeches, it would not be surprising that they deal with “the need for global excellence” (legitimizing our need until now to export our trained labor/experts), “challenges in this technological age,” “lessons from the pandemic,” “the youth as hope of the fatherland,” and such other topics which hardly cause controversy.
It took a Ms. Vasquez to speak about a young Lumad girl named Weweng and the circumstances of her impoverished reality in an unusual setting as a graduation ritual. It took an Anthropology student to bring to her middle-class audience’s attention the lamentations of an indigenous community. Between ADDU’s campus and the Tagakolu’s abode is only a distance of less than 300 kilometers. Ms. Vasquez’ speech bridged these two contrasting social realities.
No wonder the provocative title of her speech -The Discomforts of Privilege –would have shaken off their apathy. The words resonate with the middle-class’ angst reflecting on what is their role in a Third World setting where they enjoy certain privileges totally out-of-reach of the majority of the citizenry, especially the Lumad. When a prophet arises in our midst – especially girls like Gwyneth who are in the same mold as Joan of Arc (put to death at age 19) and today’s Greta Thunbergs who are fearless in challenging Big Oil, Big Governments and Big Business to stop the use of fossil fuels and find alternatives – we do respond in awe!
And there is also the style and delivery of the speech. She was not combatant; she did not raise hell like angry speakers at a rally. All Ms. Vasquez did was tell stories of a Lumad girl, her indigenous community’s situation, her positionality as a student of an elite school and raised by a middle-class family and her insights as she went on fieldwork. She spoke from her heart, wondering the deeper meanings of “paningkamot.” But in the process – despite her own apprehensions regarding the implications owing to “structural barriers and privileges” – she challenged her audience especially her co-graduates to “consider how the privilege of an Ateneo education can be force of good in this world.”
For now, one needs to ask hard questions: what are the implications if the Provincial government of Davao Occidental fully implements their Executive Order? Who are the organized groups, whether formal or informal interest groups implicated in this? What procedures are to be followed in seeking permission from the LGU? How tedious will be the bureaucratic procedures; whose signatures will need to be sought? Are their fees involved? Will length of stay be regulated? Even the taking of photos? Etc. etc.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Redemptorist Brother Karl Gaspar is Mindanao’s most prolific book author. Gaspar is also a Datu Bago 2018 awardee, the highest honor the Davao City government bestows on its constituents. He is now based in Cebu City).
