Lumads stage SIPA, own version of SONA

BUTUAN CITY (via GMANews.tv) - Some 100 indigenous people (IP) representing Lumad communities all over the country staged what they call as the “State of the Indigenous People’s Address" (SIPA), their own version of the President's State of the Nation Address (SONA).

SIPA was staged in Lantapan town in Bukidnon province Monday, the same day President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III delivered his first SONA.

“With a new president at the helm, the IP leaders feel this year’s SIPA is also a good opportunity to draft plans of action to address our issues and concerns and forge a collective IP Agenda for the new administration," Gonotan Edwin Ending, a Subanen from Zamboanga Peninsula, said in the vernacular.

The SIPA first started out in 2008 as a gathering of leaders of indigenous groups to discuss common issues hounding the sector, particularly their struggle for the right to self-determination.

“This year, the IP leaders—through a series of workshops—will forge an IP Agenda for immediate executive and legislative action," Rovik Obanil, communications officer of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC-KsK), a non-government organization.

Obanil said SIPA 2010 also aims to reach a collective platform for IPs to advocate for their rights.