Reviewing the indigenous rights of Iraya Mangyan in Occidental Mindoro, Philippines

Indigenous people are typically known to be alienated from mainstream societies as an impoverished group of individuals. This can be associated with how their rights are recognized and upheld by society. Stirred by this common notion, this ethnographic research explored how the indigenous rights of Iraya Mangyans in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro are exercised. Guided by unstructured audio-recorded interviews, questionnaires, field observations, and thematic interpretation of the responses, the study unveiled that the indigenous rights of the subjects were found to revolve around empowerment, representation, self-governance, customary justice and peace-building processes, and education. The results further revealed how modernization elevated their native oppressed status to more functional individuals exercising the aforementioned rights within and outside their domains. Findings, therefore, highlight how the exercise of their rights in different aspects can serve as an instrument for upholding cultural integrity and identity construction, especially in the shifting landscape of modern times.