THE COUPLES for Christ Answering the Cry Of the Poor (CFC ANCOP) Davao City will invite 2,000 to 3,000 entrants for the “Global Walk 2025” to aid 300 beneficiaries at SM Ecoland’s Expansion wing on Oct 26.
CFC ANCOP’s third fundraising event to be held in SM City Davao aims to support 300 students to continue their studies who are in need of scholarships, school tuitions, and school supplies.
Jay Satoquia, head of CFC ANCOP Davao City, highlighted that it is the organization’s mandate to help kids achieve their dreams in enrolling at schools despite their hardships in life, as he believes that education not only benefits the children but also their families and society as a whole.
Satoquia mentioned that they have 15 students with different degrees who graduated in Davao this year, and among them, five graduates had Latin honors (Cum laude, Magna cum laude, Suma cum laude).
He added that the Global Walk is also held simultaneously in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao with their own respective beneficiaries.
Carmel Joan Carpio from the CFC ANCOP shared that the organization has helped 30,000 scholars over the years. Carpio urged the public to join the annual event to help the youth in their education.
Global Walk 2025’s registration fee will cost P300, which will go directly to the beneficiaries. The gathering of participants is at 4:00 am and will commence at 5:00 am. A prayer mass will also be held at 8:00 am after the walk.
The route will start at the Expansion Wing, going to the Coastal road, and will end back at the mall.
October 20, 2025
EastMinCom marks Marawi liberation anniversary, hails ‘profound test of courage and unity’
THE EASTERN Mindanao Command (EastMinCom) on Monday, Oct. 20, joined the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in commemorating the 8th Anniversary of the Marawi Liberation, remembering the crisis not just as a victory, but as a “profound test of courage, unity, and patriotism.”
The solemn flag-raising ceremony, held at the Naval Station Felix Apolinario in Panacan, Davao City, featured EastMinCom’s leadership paying tribute to the heroism and resilience that defined the 2017 siege and its aftermath.
The event, held under the theme “Marawi 8: Sa Tapang, Sa Pagbangon, Sa Kapayapaan”, saw Lt. Gen. Luis Rex D. Bergante, Commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command, lead the proceedings.
Bergante delivered the message of AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo S. Brawner Jr., who reflected on the defining chapter in Philippine history.
The message stressed that the battle was not only waged on the streets but was a crucial test for the nation’s unified spirit.
“We honor the valor and sacrifice of our soldiers, police, and reservists, heroes who laid down their lives so that future generations may live freely,” the message stated. “Their courage changed the course of history, and their sacrifice paved the path from destruction to renewal.”
Partnership for lasting peace
The statement further highlighted the critical role played by the local population in Marawi’s recovery, emphasizing their resilience and cooperation in rebuilding the city.
“The people of Marawi chose peace over anger, unity over division, and hope over despair,” the AFP Chief’s message continued.
“The government, on the other hand, committed itself to providing security, humanitarian aid, and sustainable development programs… This partnership between the people and the government is the foundation of lasting peace.”
Also participating in the ceremony were Commodore Dwight Steven M. Dulnoan, EastMinCom deputy commander, and Capt. Archibold Dino C. Delfin, deputy commander of the Naval Forces Eastern Mindanao, alongside EastMinCom’s officers, enlisted personnel, and civilian staff.
The event reaffirmed the AFP’s commitment to protecting the freedom and peace secured by the sacrifices made during the 2017 crisis.
Photo courtesy of EastMinCom
A MOBILE water treatment plant was dispatched and made operational by DOH Davao in Davao Oriental on Tuesday. This forms part of the earthquake response efforts of DOH that focus on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
Through this facility, immediate access to clean and potable water will be made possible for identified communities in Manay, Davao Oriental, preventing outbreaks of water-borne diseases in the wake of the recent earthquakes and supporting limited local potable water sources. It is scheduled for deployment in a tent city in Barangay Central to be accessed by the evacuees in nearby evacuation centers.
Alongside the mobile water facility, the DOH Davao has also distributed assorted WASH commodities like aqua tabs, jerry cans, and hygiene kits.
Engr. Mohammad Fahrudin Aliuden, program manager of DOH Davao – Environmental and Occupational Health Unit, said that they are closely working with the local government unit to optimize the use of this asset, including a strategic location for it.
“We also trained personnel from the LGU to operate the mobile facility,” he said.
The machine is equipped with a 3KVA gasoline generator and can be utilized next to natural water sources like a river to supply potable water.
The machine uses a multimedia filtration system that allows water to be processed through multiple layers of filter media such as gravel, sand, and carbon to remove suspended solids, turbidity, and impurities. It also uses chlorine as a disinfectant, ensuring that water is safe to drink by killing harmful bacteria, viruses, and parasites that may cause diseases like cholera and typhoid.
“Ferric chloride is also used as a coagulant to remove suspended solids, turbidity, and organic matter,” Aliuden said.
The mobile facility, he added, is also equipped with testers to ensure water potability. The results of water testing also ensure that the parameters of emergency drinking water are met as guided by the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water of 2017 (AO 2017-0010).
SHARED Secrets Cosmetics Store- a new destination for indulgence and all things luxury from cosmetics to skincare and scents, officially opened on Saturday, October 18, 2025.

Shared Secrets brings to Davao City an exquisite collection of high-end skincare, makeup, and fragrances from some of the world’s most coveted brands– Dior, YSL, Burberry, Bvlgari, Prada, Good Girl, Charlotte Tilbury, among others.
All the products are straight from the beauty capitals of the world — USA, Japan, Korea, Australia, Canada and Europe.
“Most of our products are imported, so it’s different when these products are available in the city,” Arielle Louise Lu- Echavez, the CEO and Founder, shared.

How it started
Before Shared Secrets, Arielle Louise Lu- Echavez started to sell Japanese skincare products at The Mindanao Basket (TMB) Home of the Finest Steaks, which she also founded in 2020, when people started to inquire for make-ups and perfumes.
“TMB is known for food, so I’m like why not create another business that will totally highlight luxury make-ups, skin care, hair care for everybody,” she said.

For the name Shared Secrets, she said it was her husband, Nell Echavez, who thought of the name, derived from just simply sharing beauty secrets between a group.
“Everytime we ask, what’s our beauty secret? So it’s a shared secret, it’s supposed to be a secret, but we share it. We want to build a community where we can share beauty secrets,” she added.

Self-love, self-care
More than a cosmetics store, Shared Secrets is positioned as a happy place for self-love and self-care.
“If I ask you why you buy this make-up aside from spoiling yourself, it is for you to feel more beautiful,” she said.

She added the store aims to uplift everybody’s self-confidence by sharing beauty secrets and promoting the importance of taking care of oneself.
“Its a unique place because everybody is welcome from ladies, gents, LGBT community and also from students to golden age who wanted to pamper themselves,” she said.

Value for money
When it comes to pricing, Shared Secrets promote value for money as the product offerings are 120% authentic.
“We do not sell counterfeit goods, so even though our pricing is very competitive and lower than the mall and shops, rest assured it’s genuine and authentic,” she said.
The boutique is located at Unit 3, Casaloda Commercial Building, Juna Subd., Juna Avenue, Davao City just beside The Mindanao Basket (TMB) Home of the Finest Steaks.
Welcome to the Agentic Enterprise: With Agentforce 360, Salesforce elevates human potential in the age of AI
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the #1 AI CRM, announced the general availability of Agentforce 360, the culmination of a year of transformation, redefining how work gets done in the age of AI.
While others are just beginning to showcase what’s possible with agentic AI in the enterprise, Salesforce has spent the past year delivering it — with four major releases, thousands of customer deployments, and Salesforce itself as Customer Zero, proving how the Agentic Enterprise comes to life.
The Agentic Enterprise represents a new model for work — where AI elevates people rather than replacing them. In an Agentic Enterprise, every team operates with 24/7 intelligence: sales leads are never missed, service never sleeps, and every employee has an AI partner that helps them move faster and make smarter decisions. The result is a new era of productivity, customer connection, and growth.
A year of innovation, built on 26 years of trust
None of this would be possible without the foundation Salesforce has built as the world’s most trusted customer platform. The very technology that has powered CRM, automation, and analytics now powers AI agents capable of turning every workflow into intelligence, every employee into a multiplier, and every customer interaction into a moment of impact.
Over the past 12 months, Salesforce has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of customers, advancing Agentforce through four major releases that paved the way for today’s launch of Agentforce 360:
- Agentforce (October 2024): Introduced the first enterprise AI agent platform.
- Agentforce 2 (December 2024): Improved the Atlas Reasoning Engine for more predictable, grounded results.
- Agentforce 2dx (March 2025): Enabled agents to be embedded in any workflow — proactive, triggered, and cross-functional.
- Agentforce 3 (June 2025): Delivered enhanced interoperability and governance, preparing enterprises for scale.
These milestones have led us to Agentforce 360, which transforms Salesforce beyond CRM — where agents don’t just serve customers, but also empower employees, streamline operations, and collaborate with other agents.
The platform behind the shift
Agentforce 360 uniquely brings together the four ingredients of an Agentic Enterprise:
- Agentforce 360 Platform: The foundation for enterprise-grade AI agents, now featuring a new conversational builder, hybrid reasoning for greater control and accuracy, and voice capabilities.
- Data 360: The trusted, unified data layer that gives every agent context. With innovations like Intelligent Context and Tableau Semantics, companies can turn unstructured data and analytics into rich context and understanding for AI.
- Customer 360 Apps: The business logic and institutional memory of every enterprise — capturing how it sells, serves, markets, and operates — now brought to life through AI agents that deeply understand every customer and process from the inside out.
- Slack: The conversational interface for humans and agents to work together, connecting knowledge, actions, and data in real time.
This uniquely integrated approach enables businesses to deploy agents that are grounded in governed, trusted data; work across teams and workflows; collaborate with humans and other agents directly in Slack; and leverage existing processes, business logic, and data infrastructure. And with its open ecosystem, partners extend Salesforce’s technology into every industry with tailored solutions and services.
Proven with customers. Proven inside Salesforce
Agentforce 360 isn’t another AI pilot — it’s already reshaping work inside Salesforce and across industries. Internally, Salesforce uses Agentforce 360 to handle routine tasks across sales, IT, and support, elevating employees to focus on strategy, creativity, and customer relationships.
Across 12,000 customers, the results are transformative:
Reddit deflected 46% of support cases and cut resolution times by 84%, reducing average response from 8.9 minutes to 1.4 minutes. “This efficiency lets us provide on-demand help for complex tasks, boost advertiser satisfaction by 20%, and free up human reps from repetitive questions,” said John Thompson, VP of Sales Strategy and Operations.
Adecco handled 51% of candidate conversations outside of standard working hours with agents. “Agentforce lets us automate high-volume tasks, strategically freeing our recruiters’ time to focus on quality customer engagement,” said Pierre Matuchet, Adecco SVP IT & Digital Transformation.
OpenTable resolved 70% of diner and restaurant inquiries autonomously. “Agentforce delivered the warmth and white-glove service our industry demands,” said George Pokorny, SVP of Global Customer Success. “Within weeks, our restaurant agent handled 70% of questions — a marked improvement over our previous chatbot.”
Engine reduced handle time by 15%, saving over $2 million annually. “Agentforce is a game-changer,” said Elia Wallen, CEO. “Its voice capabilities will let us deliver our unique brand experience directly to customers, creating trusted interactions at scale.”
1-800Accountant achieved a 90% case deflection rate during tax week. “Agentforce lets us give customers real-time updates, flag savings, and arm our pros with pre-built agendas,” said Ryan Teeples, CTO. “Our team can now focus on the complex needs of our customers — keeping them successful.”
Go Deeper: What’s New in Agentforce 360
Agentforce 360 delivers the most advanced capabilities yet for building, deploying, and governing enterprise-grade AI agents. These innovations span the entire Salesforce ecosystem, from platform to data to customer apps to Slack.
Agentforce platform: More predictable, more human
Agentforce 360 introduces the most dependable and accessible agents yet — designed to reason, act, and collaborate alongside people.
- Agentforce Builder: A new conversational development studio that lets teams design, test, and deploy agents using natural language — no manual configuration required.
- Agentforce Voice: A native voice layer that transforms IVR systems into natural, real-time conversations with low-latency transcription, realistic speech synthesis, and deep Salesforce integration.
- Hybrid Reasoning & Agent Script: Combines deterministic workflows with flexible LLM reasoning for precision and adaptability. Developers can define guardrails, tool use, and logic using Agent Script, powered by the configurable Atlas Reasoning Engine.
- Agentforce Vibes: Extends low-code development to AI, letting builders “vibe-code” apps grounded in company data and governance.
- Observability: New dashboards help teams monitor reasoning, accuracy, and compliance — improving reliability over time.
Data 360: Turning data into context
Data 360 now activates a company’s data — structured or unstructured — to give every agent business context and personalization.
- Intelligent Context: Enables agents to access unstructured content like PDFs, diagrams, or tables to guide users through real tasks, such as troubleshooting or analysis.
- Tableau Semantics: Translates data into business language and ensures consistent metrics across clouds through the Customer 360 Semantic Data Model (SDM). With partners Databricks, dbt Labs, and Snowflake, Salesforce is enabling standardized semantics across platforms.
Customer 360 Apps: Agents in the flow of work
Salesforce apps now embed conversational agents that act directly in business workflows.
- Agentforce Sales: Automates prospecting, qualification, and quoting with next-best actions.
- Agentforce Marketing: Builds and launches campaigns, journeys, and assets autonomously.
- Agentforce Service: Powers the Command Center for Service for proactive, always-on support.
- Agentforce Field Service: Automates scheduling, integrates live maps via Esri, and enables hands-free data capture with Voice to Form.
- Agentforce Revenue Management: drives predictable growth with AI agents that empower sales, ops, and billing teams with agentic quoting, agentic billing, and consumption management.
- Agentforce Commerce: increases shopper conversion and grows cart size with conversational, guided shopping experiences and checkout.
- Agentforce IT Service: reduces IT costs and boosts employee productivity by ending the portal-to-ticket era and deploying specialized AI agents to deliver 24/7 conversational resolutions everywhere employees work, including Slack and Microsoft Teams. Customers can benefit from 100+ pre-built connectors, integrations, and workflows from partners including Box, CrowdStrike, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Okta, Oracle Netsuite, Workday, and Zoom.
- Agentforce 360 for Industries: delivers faster time to value for every industry with new pre-built, industry-specific solutions like Agentforce Life Sciences, Agentforce Public Sector, and Agentforce Manufacturing.
Slack: The agentic OS for the enterprise
Slack becomes the system where humans, agents, apps, and data connect in real time.
- Slack-First Apps: Agentforce Sales, IT Service, HR Service, and Tableau Next now surface insights and complete actions without leaving Slack.
- Channel Expert Agent: Always-on expertise inside channels, powered by real-time enterprise knowledge search.
- Enterprise Search: Natural language answers spanning Google Drive, GitHub, Jira, and more.
- Reimagined Slackbot: Context-aware assistant for writing help, message summaries, and huddle notes.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP): Integrates third-party AI like Anthropic, Dropbox, and OpenAI through new APIs for real-time knowledge and automation.
Partners: Extending the Agentforce 360 ecosystem
Salesforce’s partner ecosystem extends and integrates across Agentforce 360, delivering apps and agents for any use case and deep industry expertise to drive customer success.
- Expanded Customer Model Choice for Agentforce and hosting methods: Allows customers to bring the power of Anthropic via Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Gemini (NEW), and OpenAI directly into the Salesforce experience.
Slack-native AgentExchange: Turns Slack into the world’s largest marketplace for AI agents. Building on the hundreds of partner-built actions and MCP servers that extend Agentforce agents, teams can now instantly discover, try, and install agents from partners like Anthropic (Claude), Cursor, Google Cloud (Gemini), OpenAI (GPT-5, GPT-5-Codex), Perplexity, Vercel, and WRITER, and all natively within their Slack workspace.
Samsung Electronics ranks 5th in global brands for the sixth consecutive year
SEOUL, Korea –– Samsung Electronics today announced it has been recognized by Interbrand, a global brand consultancy, as the 5th-ranked global brand for the sixth year in a row. Interbrand releases its list of “Best Global Brands” each year. For this year’s list, Samsung recorded a brand value of $90.5 billion, upholding its position as the only Asian company to remain in the global top five since 2020.
According to Interbrand, Samsung Electronics’ evaluation was positively influenced by:
- Strengthened AI competitiveness across the company’s business divisions
- Enhanced customer experiences through unified integration across products
- Focused investment in AI-related semiconductors
- Execution of a customer-centric brand strategy
“Through AI innovation and open collaboration, Samsung has worked to ensure that more customers can experience AI in their daily lives,” said Won-Jin Lee, President and Head of Global Marketing Office at Samsung Electronics. “Moving forward, we will continue to focus on benefits for customers, including in health and safety, so that Samsung can grow into an even more beloved brand.”
Under the vision of “Innovation for All,” Samsung consistently strives to make AI accessible to more customers worldwide.
This year, Samsung reinforced its leadership in mobile AI with the continued advancement of Galaxy AI, aiming to make it available on 400 million devices within the year, driving the democratization of AI. In Consumer Electronics (CE), Samsung has expanded AI competitiveness by introducing AI technologies tailored to each product category, such as Vision AI and Bespoke AI.
Through open collaboration with diverse partners, Samsung has enhanced personalized AI experiences for customers, while also providing industry-leading security with Samsung Knox.
In semiconductors, Samsung has been addressing the growing demand for AI with a comprehensive portfolio across cloud, on-device, and physical AI. This includes actively responding with advanced products, including HBM, high-capacity DDR5, LPDDR5X and GDDR7.
Beyond AI, Samsung continues to enhance the accessibility of its products and services and drive sustainable innovation across all business divisions. This includes energy savings through energy-efficient appliances connected via SmartThings.
Samsung’s Recognized Efforts in Each Business Division
Mobile
- Leading the mobile AI era and driving the popularization of AI with Galaxy AI
- Strengthening foldable category leadership with the launch of Galaxy Z Fold7 and Z Flip7
- Enhancing customer trust through strengthened privacy and security technologies
- Expanding health services through advanced wearables, Samsung Health enhancements, and open collaboration
Networks
- Reinforcing leadership in AI-powered virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRAN) and Open RAN
- Consistently innovating technologies to support various 5G use cases, including high-quality streaming and gaming
- Leading the technical standardization of 6G
- Enhancing partnerships with customer companies and communicating the sustainability aspects of Samsung’s network technology
Visual Display
- Solidifying global leadership in TVs, soundbars, and gaming monitors
- Innovating viewing with rich AI features based on Vision AI
- Enhancing The Frame and Art Store services to deliver personalized art TV experiences
- Expanding content offerings through partnerships in TV Plus, entertainment, gaming, and music
Digital Appliances
- Maintaining global leadership in categories such as refrigerators and washing machines through consistent product innovation and advanced AI capabilities
- Providing differentiated convenience and advanced AI experiences through SmartThings integration
- Expanding Bespoke AI appliance leadership across energy efficiency, usability, performance, and design
Semiconductor
- Operating a diverse portfolio across cloud, on-device, and physical AI applications
- Maintaining leadership in mobile and automotive semiconductors, including DDR, SSD, LPDDR, UFS, and Auto SSD
- Continuing development and investment in innovative solutions like CMM-D and HBM
- Sharing vision and industry leadership through influential tech events
Interbrand’s Best Global Brands are ranked based on brand value evaluation, which involves a comprehensive analysis of the company’s financial performance and outlook, the influence of the brand on customer purchases, and brand competitiveness (including strategy, empathy, differentiation, customer engagement, consistency, trust, and more). The ranking is one of the world’s longest-standing brand value evaluations, widely recognized for its credibility.
Shortly Before noon yesterday water service was again disrupted in our place. That is, Barangay Talandang in Tugbok district, Davao City.
And we are certain that the water service interruption was not only in our place but in the immediate environs. Good thing that with our experience last Thursday and Friday we filled every available vacant container we were able to assemble in our house.
Thus, when the outage happened again yesterday we already felt a little comfortable knowing that we have some liquid to use.
So we decided not to communicate with the Davao City Water District’s (DCWD’s) communications unit because we were certain that we could have again received the same answer. That is, its crew were still fielded to locate where the leakage or the problem is, and promises us of “update” later.
By the time we finished this piece and e-mailed the same to our editorial office, still not a drop of the precious liquid of life came out of our faucets.
Frankly, we have no idea whose system in the water supply service to consumers was problematic in yesterday’s interruption. Was it the DCWD’s, or that of its bulk water supplier? We were told that the water delivered in the households of our barangay emanates from the reservoirs in the nearby barangay Biao Joaquin that serves as depository of water coming from Apo Agua facilities in Tamugan.
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These days social media platforms have become the dirtiest battleground for politics. And the “soldiers” doing the combat for the “belligerent” politicians are the trolls and vloggers-for-hire. The legitimate combatants though are the partisans who are overly diehards for their acknowledged leaders,
Why is this shift in the battlefields and the armies used to carry on the political fight? Simple, the social media hacks do not have to fear of censorship as so far, there are no existing regulations to be strictly followed in the way how they carry the fight.
Moreover, the partisans, no matter how dirty the language and mode of presentation they use they can still hide their true identities. Hence, they are safe from the risks of doing their war.
Look at how social media is bastardized to muddle the investigation into the anomalous flood control projects. Even members of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) formed solely to probe the massive corruption attendant to the projects, are now subjected to barrage of intrigues if only to destroy their credibility.
The end objective of course is to create doubts on whatever will be the result of the ICI probe. There is no question that those funding the efforts to taint the credibility of the ICI probers are certain that any result of a probe conducted by people wanting in credibility can also be subject to doubts.
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The Davao City Council last Tuesday, approved on second reading an Ordinance authorizing the clamping of illegally parked vehicles in certain stretches of designated roads. The Ordinance is introduced by Councilor Luna Acosta of the first district.
We are a bit surprised why it took so long for the Council to introduce such measure when residents of Davao City have long been observing of vehicles wantonly parked by owners along roadsides. The illegally parked vehicles are further causing traffic in the city’s downtown areas.
This measure had been adopted in Cebu City several decades ago and it has been found to be effective in instilling discipline among drivers. But of course any measure, if intended to benefit the public and for the orderliness of the city is “Better late than never.”
Our only wish is that on the determination of the roads where some stretches are to be declared no parking spaces it will not end up congesting other more vital streets in the city.
Also, it is the public’s hope that the appropriate stakeholders should be consulted when the Council decides which thoroughfares are to be declared clamping zones.
Anyhow, our congratulations to Councilor Luna for having thought of such ordinance to alleviate traffic in the city.
Truly, she is the daughter of her mother, also a top performer in the City Council during her stint.
MONDAYS WITH PATMEI | Indigenous Peoples Month must lead to year-round respect and action
October is also National Indigenous Peoples Month in the Philippines. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Presidential Proclamation No. 1906 on October 5, 2009 in recognition of the cultural heritage, traditions, and contributions of the country’s Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs).
This proclamation is anchored on Republic Act 8371 otherwise known as the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA law). This month-long celebration is being led by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), an agency created by the IPRA law that is mandated to safeguard the rights and well-being of ICCs and IPs.
Along with the NCIP, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) is also tasked to spearhead the celebration as part of its mandate to “encourage the continuing and balanced development of a pluralistic culture by the people; conserve and promote the nation’s historical cultural heritage; and ensure the widest dissemination of artistic and cultural products among the greatest number across the country and overseas for their appreciation and enjoyment.”
The NCCA Sub-commission on Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts (SCCTA) plans, coordinates and implements the program of activities and events within the country and outside.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Weaving Culture, Enriching Future: Empowering Indigenous Communities as Bedrock of Sustainable Development.”
Indeed, our indigenous communities are essential to achieving sustainable development. They act as guardians of global biodiversity and hold vital knowledge for resilience.
Their contributions to sustainability are deep-rooted and multifaceted, stemming from their unique relationships with their lands.
Indigenous Peoples manage or have tenure rights over a quarter of the world’s land surface, which accounts for an estimated 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity. Their ancestral lands include nearly half of the planet’s protected areas and over half of its remaining intact forests.
Their traditional knowledge systems, developed over millennia, offer sustainable solutions for health, agriculture, and environmental management. A 2025 UNESCO publication, “Indigenous Knowledge, Ancestral Places,” compiles testimonials showing how Indigenous Peoples use ancestral knowledge and careful observation to address modern challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss, safeguarding species, lands, and waters.
Indigenous practices are increasingly recognized as aligning with and contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in areas of health, reducing inequalities, and climate action.
However, despite their critical role. Indigenous Peoples face significant challenges, including systematic exclusion from decision-making and the threat of climate change.
A central issue is their frequent exclusion from decisions that directly affect their lands, territories, and futures. Their right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is often not respected, leading to development projects being imposed on them and resulting in displacement and further marginalization.
While comprising only 6.2 percent of the global population, Indigenous Peoples account for 18.2 percent of those living in extreme poverty worldwide, according to a World Bank report.
They also suffer disproportionate climate impacts and unjust transitions. The transition to low-carbon economies can reproduce injustices if not managed inclusively, as new infrastructure for technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) can exacerbate environmental degradation on their lands. There is a strong global call for a “Just Transition” that guarantees their full participation and respects their rights.
The threat of loss of land and cultural heritage is very real. Development policies and projects, particularly extractive industries, continue to threaten their territories, which are inextricably linked to their cultural survival.
There is also a significant gap in data disaggregation for Indigenous Peoples, which undermines accurate and inclusive monitoring of the SDGs and can render their needs and contributions invisible in official reports.
In the Philippines, data on Indigenous Peoples vary. According to Minority Rights Group, there are close to 100 indigenous communities, exclusive of Muslim groups. NCIP estimates that there are approximately 11.3 million Indigenous Peoples in the country, which is around 11-12 percent of the population. However, some civil society groups suggest they may comprise between 10 and 20 percent of the total Philippine population.
There are some notable projects in the Philippines that promote Indigenous-led sustainability projects. These initiatives range from community-led reforestation and carbon credit partnerships to sustainable agriculture and youth-led cultural preservation.
However, these initiatives continue to face significant challenges caused by external pressures and internal divisions.
For one, indigenous lands face ongoing threats from illegal logging, mining, and large-scale development projects. These external pressures can create internal divisions within communities, as some members may be tempted by short-term financial offers from corporations or the government.
There is also the challenge of what they call “NGOization” where nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) may co-opt indigenous movements using their indigenous knowledge while marginalizing the communities, prioritizing donor agendas over local autonomy and decision-making.
For partnership agreements with indigenous communities, questions about the fair distribution of future revenues and whether the community will retain full control over the funds and project direction in the long term.
These are but some of the issues that NCIP must seriously find just and sustainable solutions to. Otherwise celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Month will just be another one of those things we do “for compliance.”
Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Month is an active commitment to building a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future. It is a time for non-indigenous people to listen, learn, and become better allies, and for indigenous people to see their identities reflected with pride in the broader society. It should be beyond one month of performance and become a year-round of respect, partnership, and action.