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Empowering the Mangyans through the implementation of Palayamanan Project in Occidental Mindoro, Philippines
Thesis Abstract:
The study sought to explore the empowerment of Mangyans as facilitated by the implementation of PhilRice’s Palayamanan project. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, interviews with project implementers and project partners, and observation. Content analysis was carefully done to analyze all the transcribed data, and come up with a detailed description of the case. Four main themes emerged, which also answered the objectives of this study: the assets that drive empowerment, the enabling environment that encourages empowerment, the nature of empowerment of the Iraya Mangyans, and the problems faced by the Palayamanan project implementers in empowering the Iraya Mangyans.
The implementation of Palayamanan project in Occidental Mindoro aimed to help the Mangyans increase their farm productivity in the upland area. It involved several activities, which aimed to enhance the capacity of Mangyans to be better decision makers in their farm. However, success of the project was greatly challenged by the difficulty of access to water, which led to the decreased participation of the beneficiaries in the project.
Results also revealed that project strategies, such as customization, community organizing, involvement of Rice Sufficiency Officer (RSO) in the field, engagement of various stakeholders, modified farmer’s field school (FFS), provision of in-kind capital, and use of motivation had empowered the Mangyans. The abovementioned strategies provided them an environment to acquire new knowledge and skills, to become part of an organized group and be linked to other institutions, and to have access to more varied food. However, holistic empowerment will not be achieved through the implementation of Palayamanan project alone, because Mangyans are still deprived of the resources and basic services, which Palayamanan cannot fully provide. Thus, an enabling environment created by several government and nongovernment services, programs, projects, and policies that would contribute to the psychological, economic, informational, organizational, and human assets of indigenous people (IPs) is much feasible for the Iraya Mangyans to achieve holistic empowerment.
