Legarda Honors IPs with Isang Habi, Isang Lahi Exhibit at the Senate

TO HONOR THE RICH CULTURE OF OUR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, PRESERVE OUR DISTINCT HERITAGE, OUR FILIPINO ANCESTRAL WISDOM, AND TO REKINDLE OUR PRIDE IN OUR COUNTRY’S CULTURAL DIVERSITY, THE ISANG HABI, ISANG LAHI EXHIBIT ORGANIZED BY SENATOR LOREN LEGARDA WILL BE FORMALLY OPENED AT THE SENATE ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2010.
“Aside from my personal collection, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Nayong Pilipino Foundation and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples have shared indigenous jewelry, textile and costumes sourced from all over the country to show that each ethnolinguistic tribe is different, distinct.”
Legarda will also be delivering a speech on the Senate Floor appealing that we all work together to hear the chants of our elders, move with the dances to the deities, weave organic fabrics, learn sustainable agricultural and resource use methods, and cure sickness through methods that have withstood the test of time.
The Chair of the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities reiterated that there are still many forces that work against the Indigenous Peoples, those that divide and destroy their very character and existence such as: mining, displacement due to war, being uprooted from the very soil to which they are spiritually and fundamentally linked, lack of education opportunities including extra-judicial killings.
“There have been developments in legislation taking to consideration the growing recognition of IP rights.”
As Chair of the Committee on Cultural Communities, Legarda filed the following bills:
1. SBN 1342 – Anti-Religious and racial Profiling Act
2. SBN 1365 – No-Mining Zones
3. SBN 1371 – Protection of Internaly Displaced Persons
4. SBN 1372 – Equal Employment Opportunity for IPs
5. SBN 1371 – Resettlement for Under-Privileged and Homeless Citizens affected by government development projects
“May this exhibit weave the different ethno-linguistic tribes, weave their different cultures and practices, weave their different beliefs, weave Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, weave Christians and Muslims – into one cloth, one fabric that binds us together and makes us stronger – that is the Filipino. Let these differences unify us and solidify the mold of our national, our one identity as a the Filipino people,” Legarda concluded.
Directive 2008/225/EC of the European Parliament consists of the common standards and procedures in EU Member States for third-country nationals.