"Duterte to 'choose investors' to develop Lumad lands for oil palm, mining", 3 February 2018

…President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to personally choose the investors who would develop their ancestral domains that are presently under the influence of the New People’s Army (NPA).

He said Lumads may want oil palm and other agriculture-based projects or, if they agree, go into a mining partnership.

(But if you keep on fighting, nothing will happen. So I will choose the investor), the President said.

…Jerome Succor Aba, co-chair of Sandugo Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination, said “it is your government and the corporations that are making trouble.”

Duterte…recalled how Paquibato district…would have been developed…as…oil palm plantation….

He said the people of Paquibato objected…because it will affect the water supply. But Duterte asked: (What will we do with the water? Leave it under ground? What if that can help us?).

Under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, entry of development projects requires the Lumads’ Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) “…free from any external manipulation, interference and coercion, and obtained after fully disclosing the intent and scope of the activity, in a language an process understandable to the community.”

Ancestral domains are communal property that “belongs to all generations and therefore cannot be sold, disposed or destroyed” and covers “sustainable traditional resource rights.”