Eufemenia Campos Cullama

Eufemenia Campos Cullamat is a Lumad woman leader from Tandag, Surigao del Sur, Mindanao. She is a council member and one of the founders of Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod (MAPASU), and a community development worker with the Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS).  She comes from a family of leaders. Her father was the ‘datu’ (Tribal Chief), her brother the founding chair of MAPASU, and her other siblings are also community leaders and organizers.

Femia, as is she is fondly called by her family and friends, is a mother five who makes sure there is balance between her political work and her family responsibilities.  Her work is focused on ensuring that women are active participants in discussions and decisions on key issues.  According to Femia, “We motivate them (the women) not to be confined in the four walls of their homes because women have a key role in raising awareness of other women and the community.  I believe that whatever unity is achieved would be incomplete without women’s voice and participation. We should not be content with just raising our own families.  Rather, it should be in the context of the development of the entire community.  We should use our time to reach out to other families, to other women in the community.”

On September 1, 2015 a paramilitary group rounded up all the people in her village and killed MAPASU Chair Dionel Campos, Tribal Chief Datu Juvello, and Emerito Sarca, Executive Director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV).  Femia and her siblings were among the first Lumad leaders to travel to Manila to give evidence about the massacre.  Femia continues to work on the frontlines, organizing women and ensuring that women have a place in the struggle for Indigenous people’s rights and justice.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/720454/lumad-witnesses-tag-killers-of-educator