Of the country’s current projected population of 94,01 million, indigenous peoples are estimated to comprise some 10%, or around 9,4 million. There has been no accurate comprehensive count of Philippine indigenous peoples since 1916, although the national census in 2010 included an ethnicity variable. They generally live in geographically isolated areas with a lack of access to basic social services and few opportunities for mainstream economic activities. They are the people with the least education and the least meaningful political representation. In contrast, commercially valuable natural resources such as minerals, forests and rivers can mainly be found in their areas, making them continuously vulnerable to development aggression. The indigenous groups in the northern mountains of Luzon (Cordillera) are collectively called Igorot while the groups on the southern island of Mindanao are collectively called Lumad. There are smaller groups collectively called Mangyan in the central islands as well as even smaller, more scattered, groups in the central islands and Luzon. The year 2010 commemorated the 13th year of the promulgation of the Republic Act 8371, known as the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA). The law calls for respect for indigenous peoples’ cultural integrity, right to their lands and right to self-directed development of these lands. The Philippines voted in favour of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; the government has not yet ratified the ILO Convention 169.

International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, The Indigenous World 2011