Food crisis felt even more by indigenous women farmers under the Marcos-Duterte Administration

Indigenous Women Farmers and small food producers from all over the Philippines feel the intensifying hunger and the lack of support from the Marcos-Duterte administration.

Indigenous communities experienced typhoons, flooding, and intense drought, and throughout these, they never felt the care from the government. The indigenous women continue to live in poverty while their communities face the hardships brought by the impacts of extreme climate changes.

Before he left his office, then President Duterte lifted the 9-year moratorium in approving new mining applications. Since 2021, there have been 38 new approved and registered mining operations in the country, while there are 148 applications being processed. If new things come with “Bagong Pilipinas”, it is the increasing number of applications of mining corporations, and the approval of projects that threaten the environment such as mega dam projects and plantations, among others, within the ancestral domains.

This is the promise of development under the “Bagong Pilipinas”. But history tells us that this kind of corporate-led and destructive development projects never served the interest of the indigenous women, their families and communities. This development serves not the interest of the Filipino people but that of foreign and large investors and corporations coalescing with a corporate driven framework of the government.

Meanwhile, the indigenous women leaders who persist in speaking out, and call for their voices to be heard, continue to experience threats, attacks, harassments, red tagging, and killings.

As we listen to the 3rd SONA of the son of the Marcos Dictator, we ask - where are the promises for the Filipino people? And for whom is the “Bagong Pilipinas”?

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