Zenaida-Brigida Hamada Pawid

Ms. Zenaida- Brigida Hamada Pawid has been a member of the Northern Luzon Coalition for Good Governance since its inception as group in 1992. She shares in the advocacy of the organization of strengthening good governance and of bringing forth a new frontier in upland-lowland and IP – non IP relations. Her long experience on social accountability initiatives since 1985 has helped build her fields of expertise on issues of CPF concerns: coalition-building, ancestral domains, autonomy, cultural integrity, and healing and reconciliation in indigenous people communities.

From 1985 -1988, she was a member of the Research and Information Committee of the Movement for Autonomy & Peace (MAP).  As founding member of the Baguio- Benguet Indigenous Cultural Communities and through the Cordillera’s People’s Forum, she helped provide a forum for individuals and organizations in the Cordilleras to participate in the post-EDSA spaces for meaningful autonomy. Ms. Pawid had civic engagements through her participation as a volunteer of the NAMFREL-PPCRV and of the National Peace Conference. She did social auditing with national coalitions and various IP community organizations like the DSAC Bontoc-Lagawe. She helped raise awareness on local grievances and dispute resolution mechanisms through the Cordillera People’s Forum, Kalinga Bodong Congress and Bontoc Federation of Elders. Since 2006, she is a member of the Forging Partner for Peace to help in the necessary coalition builiding for their advocacies.

Throughout her participation in numerous activities that helped strengthen good governance, Ms. Pawid encountered various challenges. The biases and prejudices among various groups and stakeholders coupled with a lack of knowledge and appreciation for indigenous practices impede the success of their advocacies. There is also the problem of getting sustainable assistance for organizational capacity-building and programs. In spite of these challenges, their efforts reaped good rewards. There is a growing regional and national understanding of Northern Luzon, not just a region of the Philippines but also as a natural ecosystem inhabited by indigenous peoples in the Cordilleras and Sierra-Madre / Caraballo mountain ranges. More people share in the realization that citizens’ participation and coalition-building among civil society member and NGOs are crucial elements in achieving good governance.