National Cultural Minorities In The Philippines

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world”. And in the Pan American Union, there are phrases like “deficiency in their physical and intellectual development” and “a preferential right to the protection of the public authorities”. In the national context, the first designation given to the minorities was “Non-christian tribes” or “Tribal Filipinos” during the American period. The use of the words “tribes” and “tribal” outright reflects its view of the minorities as “inferior”. Moreover, it makes it clear, that the use of “non christian” is not of religious belief per se but it speaks more of the “degree of civilization . . . to geographical area, and more directly to the natives of the Philippine Islands of a low grade of civilization…”. However, the phrase “low grade of civilization…show more content…
There is also the use of the word “national” in the terms previously used to refer to the these minorities, such as “National Cultural Minorities/Communities” and “National Minorities” during the post-war Philippines and Marcos era, respectively. This is an indication of the integrationist as well as the nationalist approach of the policies/agencies governing the IPs at that time. This is one difference from the IPRA also as, to be further explained below, the thrust of IPRA leans more on a rights-based approach, rather than an integrationist or nationalist one. There is/are no evident trace/s of colonial mentality in IPRA’s definition of the Indigenous Peoples. And no outright use of words that suggests an inferior-superior dichotomy. Additionally, although the IPRA, basing on its definition of the Indigenous peoples, seems to be making a thin line between the IPs and the non-IP as previously mentioned, it seems to do so “sensitively”. For instance, the use of “historically differentiated” “distinctive cultural traits” or its implication of being “culturally

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