Philippines: Critical Ethnography's Application in Governance – Upholding Indigenous People's Rights and Addressing Conflicts

The Philippine’s Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 recognizes, respects, and promotes four bundles of rights of Indigenous Cultural Communities/ Indigenous Peoples: right to Ancestral Domain; right to self-governance and empowerment; social justice and human rights; and right to cultural integrity. Along the IPRA, identity is a critical factor for governance structures, approaches, and discourses. In the context of access to and ownership over land and resources, assertion is the manifestation of identity. Overlapping mandates of government agencies and high potential for conflicts require a response of the State to identity-based assertion and recognition of rights which avoids discrimination, abuse and exacerbation of conflicts over the access to land and resources.