Volume 2 No. 2 The Official Newsletter May 2010 SDRC Celebrates Its 30th Year at DLSU The Social Development Research Center of the College of Liberal Arts held its 30th Anniversary Celebration program on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at Yuchengco Hall Rm. 507. With its' theme “Empowering the Marginalized,” the anniversary program was highlighted by a research dissemination forum featuring presentations by research fellows Dr. Jesusa M. Marco, Dr. Ma. Elena Chiong-Javier, and Ms. Alicia B. Manlagnit; the launching of the 30th Anniversary Working Paper Series; and an inspirational message by Br. President and Chancellor Armin A. Luistro, FSC. For the research dissemination forum, Dr. Marco presented findings of the study “Eco-Bio-Social Factors of Vector Density: Developing Effective Approaches to Dengue Control in the Philippines; Dr. Chiong-Javier presented findings of the study “Lumad's Struggle to Claim Ancestral Domain Right in the ARMM: The TLADMADC (Teduray-Lambangian-Dulangan Manobo Ancestral Domain Claim) Perspective”; and Ms. Manlagnit presented findings of the study “Forced to Flee by Nature: Perceptions and Experiences of Displaced People in a Rural Philippine Municipality.” Among the guests during the anniversary program were SDRC project stakeholders Mila Fulache and Kristian Marollano of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Department of Health; Romy Saliga of the Lumad Development Center, Inc. (LDCI) and Timuay Gumbalia Gunsi of TLADMADC; and Anecito Libaton, Jr., President of the New Guinsaugon Homeowners Association, Maribel Libaton, Brgy. Council Kagawad, and Ranilo Siega and Edmar Zamora, residents of New Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte. An exhibit of major projects undertaken by the Center was featured at the Yuchengco Lobby during the week of the celebration. Women and Sustainable Technology: Scaling Up Vermicomposting among the Talaandigs The project, supported by the Canada Fund for island, with farming as the main occupation of Local Initiative, aims to increase the Talaandig residents. The Talaandigs of Bol-ogan are among women's awareness of vermicomposting, the poorest residents of Songco. eventually inducing upscale of its use. The increased adoption of the technology would The Vermicomposting study is headed by Ma. lead to savings in farm inputs and an increase in Elena Chiong-Javier as project director, with environmental consciousness. The benefits of Ma. Teresa de Guzman, Leah Veneesa Valbuena, the technology and the increased involvement and Dindo Café as research associates, and of women will guarantee the sustainability of Graeme Armecin as research assistant. vermicomposting in the community. Its objectives are to increase knowledge and awareness of vermicomposting as a sustainable upland farming technology; to promote the adoption of vermicomposting as a cost-saving and environment- friendly strategy; to encourage women to actively engage in vermicomposting; and to scale up the adoption of vermicomposting in the community. The project site is Bol-ogan, a predominantly Talaandig community in the barangay of Songco with a population of about 72 households. Songco is one of the villages in Lantapan, a third class municipality found within the Kitanglad Mountain Range in Bukidnon Province of northern Mindanao. Lantapan is known as the “vegetable basket” on the 2 Piloting a Participatory Process and Tool to Establish Indigenous Peoples' Household Database for Ancestral Domain Claim This study seeks to develop and pilot test a and biodiversity perception data; 4) to train local participatory process and tool for collecting researchers to collect household data using the current demographic socio-cultural, poverty, and prototype tool; 5) to pilot test the prototype tool biodiversity perceptions at the household level in by gathering household data in one pre-selected IP communities that require household baseline IP barangay covered in an ancestral domain data for ancestral domain application. Through application; 6) to process, analyze, and write up support from the Philippine Business for Social the household data obtained from using the Progress (PBSP) and the Upland NGO Assistance prototype tool; and 7) to synthesize the major Committee (UNAC), the pilot activities are being experiences and lessons in participatory tool done in an UNAC-assisted area with the principal development for future replication in KASAPI thrust of helping the IP in claiming ancestral priority IP areas, for scaling up with local domain. government, and/or ultimately for advocacy with NCIP. The main objectives of the study are: 1) to identify and document the participatory process (i.e. The pilot study sites are in the barangays of Acacia steps) in the construction, revision, pilot testing, and San Fabian, located in Kayapa, one of 15 and assessment of the household census tool; 2) municipalities in the province of Nueva Vizcaya. to determine, with the involvement of IP Kayapa is a fourth-class municipality in the community leaders, the nature and extent of IP Central Cordillera Mountain range and an participation in this process; 3) to develop and enclave of IP groups, predominantly those of the pretest an appropriate prototype of the Kalanguya, Ibaloi, I-uwac, and Kankanaey. The IP household census tool covering baseline organizations in Kayapa are KASAPI members. A demographic, socio-cultural, total of 320 households (160 per barangay) will poverty, be covered by the study. In piloting the household census tool, the household head (male or female) will be interviewed. The study is being undertaken by a research team headed by Dr. Ma. Elena Chiong-Javier as project director, with Cristina Rodriguez and Alvaro Calara as research associates, and Graeme Armecin as research assistant. 3 SDRC 30th ANNIVERSARY WORKING PAPERS SERIES ABSTRACTS The Lumad's Struggle to Claim factors that contribute to sustaining vectors and Ancestral Domain Right in the ARMM how they can be managed to decrease the Ma. Elena Chiong-Javier incidence of dengue in the Philippines. The first phase of the study sought specifically to describe This paper focuses on indigenous peoples in the ecosystem, vector ecology, socio-behavioral Mindanao who are neither Muslim nor Christian, context and vector control programmes and bur reportedly prefer to be distinguished as activities; to analyze the relative importance of “Lumad,” a Visayan term meaning “native.” eco-bio-social factors associated with different Among the estimated 18 Lumad ethnolinguistic levels of vector density; and to identify the groups on the island are the Teduray, the interventions appropriate to the ecosystem Dulangan Manobo tribe, and their cross breed, under study. the Lambangian. While the Maguindanaoans or Muslims have organized armed revolts against The Youth Speak: Forms, Facilitators external threats to the areas they control, the and Obstacles to their Political Lumad have remained isolated in inland villages, Engagement and have responded to external incursions by Madelene Sta. Maria and Jose Maria Diestro, Jr. retreating farther up the mountains or into the forests. The paper defines the features of the Drawing on four focus groups with high school Teduray, Lambangian, and Dulangan Manobo students in rural and urban environments, the Development Council (TLADMADC)'s struggle. researchers explored youth perceptions about their roles as political agents in Philippine society. Eco-Bio-Social Factors of Vector Participants were also asked to share their ideas Density: Developing Effective on what can hinder and facilitate their Approaches to Dengue Control in the engagement of their roles. Both urban and rural Philippines youth groups emphasized their avoidance of Jesusa M. Marco criminal activities as a way by which they can contribute to societal change. While the rural Dengue is a disabling, acute infectious disease that youth were more particular about their is a leading cause of death among children in engagement in community activities and the use Southeast Asia. In the language used to describe of resources within the community in the how it is transmitted, a “vector,” or an organism engagement as political actors, the urban youth that can carry a disease-causing agent (i.e. a virus) gave greater importance to participation in mass without itself succumbing to the disease, passes activities for the common good. Both youth on this agent to a “host,” or a living being (such as groups see the lack of appreciation from others humans) that can be infected by the disease. This for their efforts at participation as a hindrance, paper is taken from an SDRC study that looks into and the sense of civic commitment as a facilitator to their participation. Differences between the two groups in their constructions of what can hinder or spur their activities as political actors can be found in the way the rural youth 4 emphasized self-related factors, such as agency demoralizing classroom environments, the and knowledge, and in the way the urban youth irrelevance of the subject matter, unreasonable emphasized non-self-related factors, such as time requirements, and competing demands for and nature of political activity in the country. student attention were perceived as inhibiting learning. The youth's accounts of their learning Filipino Youth's Views on Mental Health strategies, motivation, and valuing of education in Ma. Angeles Guanzon Lapeña, Maria Caridad H. the face of these facilitators and indicators of Tarroja, Maria Andrea S. Tirazona, and Katrina C. learning revealed