PfL-ECOT, local partners hear plea from community periled by tourism

A coastal community of 42 fishing families living in Mantigue—a forested islet fringed by powdery white beach in northern Mindanao—is facing eviction because the local government wants to develop the scenic four-hectare area as a premier destination for ecotourism. Half of the families have left, accepting the government’s offer of relocation at the price of 5,000 pesos (around 100 US dollars), which had never been fully paid.

Descendants of the first migrants who came to the
islet in the early 1950s, the residents of Mantigue are
now illegal occupants, according to a local government
plan to develop the idyllic area for ecotourism.

On November 16, the remaining 21 families gathered to meet the 22-person team coming from different parts of Mindanao representing churches, NGOs and the media, along with two from the Peace for Life Secretariat in Manila. The visit was organised to hear the testimonies of Mantigue residents on the harassment they had been facing, not the least of which being the destruction of the school building built by the community from a private donation and the recall of the public school teacher assigned.

PfL and Mindanao-based organisations—Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (InPeace), Sisters Association of Mindanao, and Pamalakaya (organisation of fisherfolk)—conducted a community hearing on the Eco-Tourism Development Plan of Mantigue Island, Camiguin, Philippines. The hearing was followed by a forum on the environmental and human costs of tourism in Mindanao on the theme “Tourism in Mindanao: A View from the Underside”. The forum was a localised version of the October 2008 consultation on Philippine tourism. The two events, held on November 16-18, 2009 in Camiguin and Cagayan de Oro City, were organised once again in partnership with the Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT), a church-related advocacy group on tourism.

The Mantigue community has been facing various kinds of harassment including mass arrest, prohibition of any selling activity, and newly imposed discriminatory regulations on the operation of pump boats used for fishing, the families’ primary means of livelihood. Armed paramilitary units have been stationed to patrol the area.

The families that have opted to leave regret their decision because the relocation area leaves them without any means of livelihood and the P5,000 promised for each family has not been fully paid. The 21 families that refused relocation are facing a criminal suit from the municipality of Mahinog, the town that has jurisdiction over Mantigue.

The forum, which dealt with the tourism program in Mindanao, an integral part of the region’s overall development plan, revealed that the newly enacted Tourism Act of 2009 is already being implemented, its adverse effects beginning to be strongly felt in areas designated for development. The Tourism Act of 2009 offers a stronger incentive for tourism development than the previous programmes implemented regionally.

Sharing among the 46 participants from churches, NGOs and social movements in Mindanao who attended the forum also demonstrated that current tourism development in Mindanao is being carried out in total disregard for the rights and welfare of the inhabitants and the sustainability of communities as a whole. Bearing the brunt of its worst effects are the fisherfolk, Lumads (Indigenous peoples of Mindanao) and Muslim communities.

Tourism now ranks among the biggest causes of development aggression along with large-scale mining, agricultural monoculture, large dam projects and other development projects that commonly give rise to militarisation, massive displacement, land-grabbing, misallocation of social services and loss of livelihood for the affected communities. These detrimental effects eventually result in environmental destruction, worsening poverty and human rights violations.

The social impacts, such as the divisions these projects foment within communities, are no less destructive. For the indigenous peoples, the promotion of “exotic cultures” as a tourist attraction has the added effect of bastardising national heritage, alienation of indigenous culture and disrespect for their legal rights to self-determination.

Tourism as an area for advocacy has nearly been of any interest to any of the groups that participated in the forum. But everyone inevitably concluded that tourism development, as espoused by the government, is a form of development aggression not unlike huge mining operations and agro-industrial enterprises, carried out as part of a development project referred to as globalisation—where capital accumulation and free movement of capital take precedence over the imperatives of a human society.

The visiting team vowed to stand in solidarity with the
beleaguered residents of Mantigue. Also in photo are
Vivian de Lima and Iris Capus of the PfL Secretariat.

The forum resolved to be in solidarity with the inhabitants of Mantigue in their struggle for their right to stay in their homes and their right to their livelihood. There was also the shared view that developing the islet for ecotourism need not be an either/or situation for the community. With appropriate planning and proper training, the inhabitants could become the stewards of their beloved islet and the involved guides for the would-be eco-tourists.

The participants recognised that like any development project that brings serious repercussions on people and communities, tourism requires vigilance, organising, and the direct intervention and participation of communities if they should benefit from it and not the big multinational corporations alone. Thorough planning and strategising would be a necessary first step to counter tourism projects that run roughshod over people’s rights and welfare.

Other groups represented in the two-part event were the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Good Shepherd Sisters, United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Kasimbayan (a church NGO for community empowerment), United Methodist Church, Order of St. Benedict, Consortium for Community Rural/Urban Development (CONCORD), Promotion of Church People’s Response, Suara Bangsamoro (a Muslim mass organisation), Kalumaran (organisation of indigenous peoples of Mindanao), and various media organisations. Most of these groups participated in the founding assembly of Peace for Life in Davao in 2004.