LILAK (Purple Action for Indigenous Women's Rights) asserts that indigenous women farmers and small food producers in different parts of the Philippines continue to experience hunger while lacking response and support from the Marcos Jr.-Duterte administration. In a National Indigenous Women's Gathering of farmers held in Quezon City, 50 indigenous women from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao discussed the realities in their communities stating that the impacts of climate change on their food production, and how corporate control over their land and natural resources diminished their food sources.
A recent SWS survey reveals that more Filipinos are hungrier in the first quarter of 2024, highest with 14.6% since the height of the global pandemic. In her statement, LILAK, a feminist indigenous women’s rights organization, said that indigenous women continue to suffer in their communities, especially indigenous women farmers and small food producers, as they face the challenges of climate change and rising commodity prices.
According to Judy Pasimio, LILAK overall coordinator, the promise of development for the "Bagong Pilipinas" seems to serve not the interest of the Filipinos, much less the welfare of the indigenous peoples and women, but the interest of foreigners, businessmen, and wealthy investors.
“If there is change in the "Bagong Pilipinas", it is the influx of applications for corporate-driven projects such as in the extractive industries that will destroy the environment and the entry of energy projects within agricultural and ancestral lands,” said Pasimio.
Since 2021, there are 38 newly approved and registered mines in the country and 148 applications currently being processed. Meanwhile, indigenous women leaders who continue to speak up and call out for their grievances to be heard continue to experience intimidation, red-tagging, and killings of some community leaders.
“In the third SONA, we can now ask the president where his promises are, and for whom this “Bagong Pilipinas” is for. It has now become clearer that the “Bagong Pilipinas” is for the Marcos family and their cronies - it is not for our country, not for indigenous communities, and definitely not for Filipinos. ” Pasimio ended.