By Gigie Arcilla/Philippine News Agency
MANILA – A Philippine Embassy official in Washington, DC last week lauded leaders of different tribes for their courage in coming out and telling their own stories of deception and abuses committed against their communities by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, New People’s Army. (CPP-NPA).
“Your presence here is credence to the struggle that you’re fighting for. And your presence here shows the stakeholders that you are bent, you are really fighting for your cause and it’s a cause worth fighting for,” Minister Patrick A. Chuasoto, Deputy Chief of Mission, told the eight indigenous peoples’ leaders, who were on their last leg of a speaking trip across the US, at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC.
Expressing his gratitude to the IP leaders during a dialogue with Embassy officials and staff on July 18, Chuasoto said the former gave them a lot of information that will be helpful in their task of convincing stakeholders about the truth because it’s about time that stakeholders in the United States hear the other side of the story,” Chuasoto said.
“The information they have provided us will be very helpful when we convey the message to the stakeholders. Their narrative is very compelling,” he added. “And you know the Duterte administration is very concerned about the welfare of the indigenous people because they comprised 14% of the Philippine population.”
It is also important, he added, that the IP leaders met with US stakeholders such as Congressmen Steve Chabot, Bobby Scott, TJ Cox, and members of the Philippine caucus because they heard the tribal heads’ narrative.
“There’s no better way to convey a message than that, by those who are affected themselves,” Chuasoto said.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Strategic Communications Ernie Abella, meanwhile, said the IP leaders’ speaking engagements are part of telling the narrative of what really is happening in the Philippines and what the tribal leaders are doing is very vital and very helpful especially in understanding the real story behind government’s actions.
“I believe their stories should be told not just by people in government, but also by people who have really experienced the situation on the ground,” Abella said.
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