KUSIONG, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte (MindaNews / 28 October) – A year after the October 28, 2022 landslide that displaced at least a hundred families and killed 27 Tëdurays at the foothills of Mt. Minandar here, survivors are still awaiting the probe that a Senate committee promised to conduct “to get to the bottom” of the tragedy.
“Did forced relocation to landslide-prone area doom members of Mindanao’s Tëduray Tribe?” Senator Robinhood Padilla, chair of the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities and Muslim Affairs, asked in a press release dated November 9, 2022.
Two days earlier, Padilla filed Senate Resolution 280 to conduct an investigation on what happened here, “to get to the bottom” of the tragedy… “and why the Tëduray tribe’s right to their ancestral domain was not upheld.”
A displaced resident checks on a galvanized iron sheet that he could salvage from ‘Ground Zero’ in Kusiong, Datu Odin Sinsuat on Friday, 25 November 2022. What used to be a relocation site here was buried by a landslide triggered by Typhoon Paeng on 28 October 2022. MindaNews photo by GREGORIO C. BUENO
Kusiong’s ‘Ground Zero” or the former relocation site, on 26 October 2023, two days before the first anniversary of the landslide that killed 27 Tedurays. MindaNews photo by GREGORIO C. BUENO
Padilla introduced the resolution on November 7, 2022, a week after the tragedy that was triggered by heavy rains unleashed by Typhoon Paeng. SR 280 directed the Committee on Cultural Communities and Muslim Affairs to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, “on whether the right to stay in the territories under Republic Act No. 8371, otherwise known as the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997, was complied with in the relocation of the Tëduray tribe and possibly amending Republic Act No. 8371.
The resolution was submitted to the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities and Muslim Affairs on November 21, 2022. Padilla chairs this Committee.
Padilla said he also wants to know which agency was “remiss in their mandate” to ensure the right of the Tëdurays to their ancestral domain is respected: the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) or the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs (MIPA) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Padilla delivered a privilege speech on his resolution on November 22.
After filing the resolution and delivering the privilege speech, however, no further action had been taken by Padilla, the Senate website’s documents on SR 280 show. A year later, the Tëdurays are still awaiting word from the Senator’s office on the date of the hearing.
A total of 12 bodies – some in coffins, others in body bags (those that were newly retrieved) –were buried here using a backhoe in a mass burial ceremony on Monday (31 October 2022) in Kusiong, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao. The mass burial site is not less than a kilometer away from the place where the victims were killed in a landslide as a result of Typhoon “Paeng.” Seven members of the Sapi clan were buried here, while a baby is still missing. MindaNews photo by FERDINANDH CABRERA
The Tëdurays, who comprise majority of the Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples (NMIPs) living in the Moro-dominated BARMM, suffered the most in the disaster wrought by Typhoon Paeng in the entire region, with 27 dead, four missing, and 65 wounded during the landslide, according to records collated by the office of Bangsamoro Member of Parliament Froilyn Mendoza.
The BARMM reported a total of 53 dead, 38 injured and 12 missing in the six-province region. Of this number, 51 deaths were in Maguindanao, 32 of them in Datu Odin Sinsuat.
In his privilege speech on November 22, 2022, Padilla cited reports that in December 2020, 127 Tëduray families sent a petition to the NCIP about the forced relocation from the coastal area to Sitio Tabunon at the foothills of Mt. Minandar.
Padilla said there was no response or action from the NCIP. He said he was also waiting for the MIPA’s response because it is the office that should look into the complaints of the IPs.
“Ginoong Pangulo, dahil sa sapilitang relokasyon mula sa kanilang ninunong lupain, napilitang manirahan ang mga katutubo sa paanan ng Mount Minandar – ang naging himlayan ng higit na dalawampung Tëduray” (Mr. President, because of the forced relocation from their ancestral domain, the Tëdurays were forced to live at the foothills of Mt. Minandar, which turned out to be the graveyard of more than 20 Tëdurays).
Padilla also cited reports that the Tëdurays “were forced to relocate because a powerful person wanted to use the place for a resort.”
“Paano po nangyari ito? Ano po ba ang dapat manaig, ang kapangyarihan ng batas o kapangyarihan ng isang tao?” (How did this happen? What should prevail, the power of the law or the power of one person?).
Padilla said the Tedurays have been living there for hundreds of years. In Filipino he said, “On that shore they have established their roots and culture; this is also the graveyard of their ancestors. As of now, their ancestral domain has been taken away from them).
“Hindi po ito katanggap-tanggap” (This is unacceptable), Padilla added.
According to the Senate website, SR 280 was introduced by Padilla on November 7, 2022 and endorsed to the Committee on Cultural Communities and Muslim Affairs on November 21, 2022.
Its legislative status is “pending in the Committee” since November 21, 2022.
MP Mendoza, who represents the NMIPs in the BTA, told MindaNews she has not received any update on the supposed Senate probe.
Timuay Alim Bandara, a Council member of the Timuay Justice and Governance, said they followed up on the probe but have not received a response on whether or not it will push through. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
