On May 12, the Philippine island of Mindoro reported its first confirmed case of a tribal resident being infected with COVID-19. The patient, a 4-year-old Indigenous Mangyan child with no travel history, was taken to a government hospital in the city of Calapan.
The child had difficulty breathing. In addition to tuberculosis and severe malnutrition, he suffered a persistent fever over the course of more than a month. While he later recovered, and his family didn’t show any symptoms of the virus, the case has highlighted the threat of the coronavirus spreading among the island’s Indigenous tribes, who are already vulnerable to preventable and treatable diseases.
Over the centuries, the Mangyans, a group of eight tribal communities on Mindoro, have suffered dispossession, displacement and cultural degradation, which has impacted their access to health services. It’s a problem common to Indigenous communities around the world, with the United Nations warning that their poorer access to health care compared to non-indigenous populations can have grave consequences for the outcome of the fight against COVID-19.
In a 2012 report for the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Jacqueline K. Cariño from the Indigenous rights group Cordillera People’s Alliance notes high rates of poor nutrition among Mangyan children. Malaria and tuberculosis are also prevalent among these communities. The Philippine Department of Health says tribe members suffer from common illnesses such as diarrhea, skin diseases, vector-borne and infectious diseases, as well as complications from unsafe birthing practices.
Even before the coronavirus outbreak, tribal communities faced high mortality rates because of the lack of health care access. On Dec. 23 last year, a 38-year-old-tribesman named Oyan died from an unknown viral infection, leaving behind a family of five. In their thatched house adorned with a mix of auspicious animistic and Christian symbols, they prepared his body with a traditional egg ritual and coconut massage.
Oyan could not afford going to the hospital, said Umna, his wife. We tried to heal him with the aid of a shaman for two months. As per our tradition we keep his corpse inside the house for three days. He’s wrapped in the blanket filled with coffee leaves to get rid of the bad smell.
Umna said it’s customary for bereaved family members to move to a different community after a death, but this time she refused. Oyan was buried in the communal cemetery. We don’t own any land, she said. We get hired for rice and coconut plantation to make ends meet. Very little attention was given to providing us with health care.
Estimates for the Mangyan population vary from 100,000 to 280,000, or 7.5% to 21% of the total population of Mindoro. The uncertainty stems from the remoteness of many of their communities.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the Philippine government has called on the public to comply with health regulations such as strict home quarantine, physical distancing, and wearing of face masks. But some of the tribal communities in the very mountainous areas may not have gotten the information. In addition, low levels of formal education in rural and impoverished communities can lead to misinformation spreading rapidly. This in turn may nurture skepticism about the seriousness of the pandemic or confusion about safety measures and symptoms. For the Mangyan communities living closer to towns, it may be difficult to self-isolate because they have to work to support their families.
The lockdown imposed by the government in March also highlighted the discrimination faced by Indigenous groups, including Mangyans. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and herself an Indigenous woman from the northern Philippines, said she has received reports of Mangyan groups being overlooked in the delivery of relief supplies by the government.
This is nothing new, says TABAK, a Manila-based organization advocating for Indigenous minority groups’ rights to ancestral lands and self-determination; Mangyans rarely get government assistance for social services, it says.
2020 Copyright Conservation news