​Bantay Kita through the Making All Voice Count (MAVC) implemented a project to improve indigenous peoples’ (IP) capacity to utilize their rights to manage resources in the ancestral domain (AD).
 
The project assisted the CAMMPACAMM Manobo Tribal Community of Rosario, Agusan del Sur to update its Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP) and formulate a Community Royalty Development Plan (CRDP). The  ADSDPP is a 5-year compendium of all IP plans within an Ancestral Domain. In the creation of a CRDP, the ADSDPP must be considered. The CRDP serves as a roadmap for allocation and investment of royalties. The Manobo Tribal Council of Rosario acknowledged the need for a development plan that would chart how the tribe’s future generations would benefit from royalties received from extractive investments in their ancestral domain. It was evident that they recognized the inter-generational right over resources.
 
In order to update the ADSDPP and prepare a CRDP, the IP group mapped out their area to locate on-going investments and identify areas for development within their AD. The mapping was facilitated by the local government through the introduction of innovative community-based mapping techniques.
 
Bantay Kita hopes to replicate this project with other indigenous communities who are facing similar of resource management challenges within their ancestral domain. Knowledge products produced in through the project are available online and will be disseminated, where needed, to indigenous communities affected by mining operations around the Philippines.
 
The project was made possible through partnerships with local non-government organizations led by the Foundation for the Development of Agusanons Inc (FDAI), the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the local government spearheaded by the provincial Government of Agusan del Sur.

View the knowledge products of this project:

• Video: History of IPs Minoritization in the Philippines
• Primer: Managing the Ancestral Domain
• Poster: Continuing Minoritization of IPs and the Enactment of IPRA

​Bantay Kita strongly denounces all forms of human rights violations. In solidarity, we stand with the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) and its network in asserting their rights and opposing any form of discrimination.
 
It is distressing to note that the CPA and its network have been targets of harassment over the past months. The Cordillera Peoples Alliance is committed to the promotion and defense of indigenous peoples’ rights, human rights, social justice, and national freedom and democracy.
CPA Chair Windel Bolinget, Vice Chair Xavier Akien and a staff of the Center for Development Programs were harassed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) while on their way home to Baguio after a community meeting with a local partner organization in Quirino, Ilocos Sur - Save Quirino Movement (SQM).
 
Five women activists from legitimate organizations from the Cordillera were charged with trumped up cases, while another woman activist is consistently maligned by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Northern Luzon Command.
 
The PNP also raided the home of farmer-pastor Eugine Antonio in Abra province, and seized documents belonging to Mudiit Peoples Organization, a local people’s organization, where Antonio is an officer. Prior to this, Antonio had been receiving death threats after distributing calamity funds he received from the Baclaran Church.
 
We urgently appeal to the public to condemn the harassment by State security forces that have sworn to protect the rights of the people.
 
Bantay Kita along with Cordillera People Alliance seeks justice for the violations committed by the PNP and AFP. We demand that the Government promote and uphold the fundamental freedoms of individuals and groups.