Greed and grievances: A Discursive Study on the Evolution of the Lumad Struggle in Mindanao, 2010-2019

Jose Mikhail Perez

doi:10.29333/ejecs/254

Authors

Jose Mikhail Perez Department of Political Science, University of the Philippines Diliman

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/254

Keywords:

inequalities, ethnic grievances, economic greed, Lumad, Mindanao.

Abstract

Are vertical or horizontal inequalities causing the Lumad struggle in Mindanao? This study attempts to answer whether ethnic or economic causes, or a combination of both, are motivating the key conflict actors in the Lumad struggle to wage long-term wars. Employing the greed and grievances model in analysing conflicts, we hypothesize that the causes of the Lumad struggle stems from ethnic grievances in the onset of conflict but eventually become an issue on economic greed in the duration of conflict over time. Using critical discourse framework, the study generated a dataset of online headlines from news reports from 2010-2019 in order to trace the framing of the Lumad struggle from the Aquino to the Duterte administrations. The results show that shared discursive themes affirm the notion that the nature of the Lumad struggle is an interaction of ethnic grievances and economic greed due to the interrelationships of various conflict actors on the ground such as the Philippine government, Lumad and Moro insurgents, Christian settlers and multinational corporations. Overall, the findings indicate that issues on ethnic grievances and economic greed in the Lumad struggle are interacting with one another due to notable events occurring on both Aquino and Duterte administrations such as the ongoing peace process between the Philippine government, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Lumad ethnic groups themselves. Nonetheless, these results must be interpreted with caution due to a number of limitations such as the application of the greed and grievances model as an external explanation inferred from the discursive themes emerging from the news headlines and the lack of previous studies detailing the Lumad struggle using the said framework.

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