Necropolitics: Panay's tumandok burial grounds and the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project Phase II (JRMP II)

Abstract

The study describes the implications of Tumandok’s (Indigenous Peoples of Central Panay) burial grounds right in the location of the proposed Jalaur River Multipurpose Project Phase II (JRMP-II). The JRMP-II is a development project however appears to be a destructive force to the Indigenous Peoples burial grounds. The study uses the interviews conducted with the Tumandok elders as key informants, personnel of offices in-charge of the construction of JRMP- II, identification and mapping of burial grounds, and close reading of international and domestic laws on and protection of sacred sites experiences. This study argues that burial grounds should be seen as a form of resistance to state sponsored development project as supported by international examples of jurisprudence and laws on the protection of sacred sites and the deep sense of conservation of the Indigenous Peoples for their hallowed grounds. This places Indigenous Peoples’ burial grounds in a pivotal role in the perspective of necropolitics as a material evidence of contestation on State policies. This study hopes to expand the notion of necropolitics by including the power to influence by the dead and their burial grounds on the aggressive policies of the state.