NCCA Trains 150 IPs in Leadership, Advocacy

About 150 youths from 11 ethnolinguistic groups in central Philippines gathered during the four-day Dungog 2018: Indigenous Peoples (IP) Youth Leadership Training and the 1st Nabulusan Festival held in this southern Negros town until Monday.

The participants were part of the Central Cluster under the Commission for Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Commissioner Alphonsus Tesoro, who attended the activity, said the staging of Dungog 2018 was a manifestation of the government’s support in uplifting the welfare of the IPs, particularly the youth.

“This project aims to capacitate the IP youth and affirms the belief that the youth is a major sector that can help in the promotion of culture and the arts. The NCCA believes and recognizes that the youth play a major role in this endeavor,” he said.

Tesoro said he hoped the training would inspire and propel the youth participants to become an active partner in developing their respective communities.

The gathering was capped on Monday by the 1st Nabulusan Festival, a celebration of the Ituman-Magahat Bukidnons of Binalbagan, as a way of recognition, promotion, and respect of the rights of the IPs.

The four-day event included groups from Negros Occidental, Guimaras, Panay, Leyte, Samar, Bohol, Palawan, and Quezon Province, with special participation of youth leaders of Ibaloi from Benguet under the North Cluster and Higaonons from Bukidnon under the South Cluster.

Some youth leader representatives were Syreel Sayo of Ituman-Magahat Bukidnon in Himamaylay City, Muller Bato of Ibaloi from Benguet, Joan Gairan of Higaonons from Malaybalay, Bukidnon, and Calvin Casa of Panay Bukidnon in Calinog, Iloilo.

Others were Mark Anthony Simbajon, Waray/Abaknon; James Aljed Gonzales, Tagbanwa-Palawan; Sherilyn Tahan, Ati-Guimaras; Digna Mae Lamason, Ilonggo/Hiligaynon; Benhur Polo, Ibaloy-Benguet; and Wranle Josef Palas, Boholano/Cebuano.

Two participants from Negros Occidental, Manilyn Villa of Tablanhon-Bukidnon from Ilog and Ana Rose Osorio of Tabihanon-Bukidnon from Cauayan, are students of Central Philippines State University in Kabankalan City.

Villa, 22, a junior Criminology student, and Osorio, 20, a freshman Sugar Technology major, said they were proud of their heritage as IPs and hoped to continue the legacy of their respective communities.

Another participant, Geramy Luston, 21, a third year Business Administration student at Carlos Hilado Memorial State College-Binalbagan Campus, belongs to the Ituman-Magahat Bukidnon.

Luston said she was glad to meet fellow IP youths from other places since it was her first time to attend such gathering.

Dungog, taken from the Hiligaynon term for pride and honor, started in 2009 in Capiz as a program for the IP youth supported by the NCCA.

Now with Dungog 2018, the NCCA said the gathering was “a celebration of culture and shared dreams.”

It added that the program provided opportunities for the IP youth to appreciate and sustain their culture despite outside influences and external pressures; enhance their knowledge, skills, leadership, and advocacy; and encourage active IP youth leaders to advocate gender-sensitive cultural preservation, management, and governance.

Through Dungog 2018, participants also started a network of organized and active IP youth groups in the Central Cluster. (PNA)