Lovely of Sierra Madre: Finding Her Courage, Reclaiming Her Indigenous Identity

NTFP-EP Philippines
Sep 26
7 min read

Updated: Sep 30

How UGNAYIN PH and the Green Livelihoods Alliance helped a young leader claim her voice for culture and forests

We interviewed Lovely Villegas, newly elected Ugnayin National Indigenous Youth Network Philippines (UGNAYIN PH) Treasurer and a Dumagat-Remontado indigenous youth leader from Quezon, Sierra Madre, during the I-YES Camp 2025 last July. Lovely’s journey began close to home: in July 2021 she joined her local IP youth organization Katutubong Kabataan na Umuugat sa Kabundukan sa Sierra Madre (UGBON), formerly Save Sierra Madre Youth Volunteers Organization (SSMYVO), and soon served as Information, Education & Communication (IEC) Committee Head. When SSMYVO became a member of UGNAYIN PH in 2022, Lovely’s circle widened; by November 2023 she was already serving at the national level as UGNAYIN PH BOT Officer and Communications Committee Lead.

Former UGNAYIN PH Treasurer MJ Pinuhan sat in our conversation. The mood swung from light to heavy, in between giggles and hushed voices. We found ourselves laughing at inside jokes but also falling into soft pauses. Lovely would often hesitate for a moment, eyes searching for the right words, and then landing on them together with shy nods and smiles, affirming her statements. This carefulness became the anchor of our conversatoin and the arc of Lovely’s journey, her gradual growth.

From quiet to determined voice

“Ngayon, namulat ako na kailangan kong maging boses. Kung hindi kami kikilos, sino pa? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa?”

(Now I’ve woken up to the need to be a voice. If we don’t act, who will? If not now, when?)

Lovely didn’t begin as an outspoken youth. For years, she waited for permission before speaking. What first shifted was context. UGNAYIN PH’s camps and meetings made offered real practice and made room for trying, stumbling, and trying again. There was learning with documentation teams, youth meetings; mistakes were simply opportunities to learn. “May safe space na nagturo sa akin magtiwala.” (There was a safe space that taught me to trust.)

This opened Lovely’s heart to trust again: a safe container, a seed for her voice to grow steadier.

Skills that serve the community

“Bukod sa comms (communications), natutunan ko ‘yung paggawa ng resolution at letters. Ngayon nagagamit ko sa pamayanan at sa cluster IPO (Indigenous People’s Organization) bilang secretary.”

(Beyond comms, I learned to draft resolutions and letters. I use these in our community and our cluster IPO as secretary.)

What started as curiosity grew into a full communications practice, and eventually, service. From taking photos at activities to video editing and even graphics. Each new tool and skill contributed. She grins when teased about leveling up. The elders noticed too, now relying on the youth for documentation. “Malaki na ang tiwala nila sa amin, lalo sa dokumentasyon.” (They trust us much more now, especially with documentation.)

Here, we dug deep into the soil to place the seed. A soil where her voice grows into skill and where trust is earned.

Becoming at home in her own name

There was a tender heaviness when she spoke about school. “Hanggang college, binu-bully ako dahil katutubo ako at sa features ko.” (I was bullied until college because I am indigenous and because of my features.)

The laughter in our interview did not bury the truth. Lovely’s confidence didn’t magically sprout; it had been rebuilt, and it continues to be rebuilt, alongside indigenous youth peers who mirror her own identity and dignity back to her; through advocacies tied to their forests and their land. One can hear the reconstruction in her voice’s rhythm. Instead of shrinking and letting shame narrow her world, Lovely chose to be open and to widen her world, to speak, learn, and widen her perspective.

While she had been careful, her voice still showed groundedness and courage, showing up despite the fear. It signaled another pivot: from victim to defender.

What opened her eyes

We asked her what worries her youthful spirit and the answers came quickly. In fact, there were too many issues. She’s concerned about projects cutting into ancestral land – large dams, windmill projects inside dense forests, road development that invite extractive industries, a once pristine river turned brown in Daraitan where her father once guided tourists. At the center of it all is one clear thread – that indigenous identity depends on the forests:

“Kapag nawala ang gubat, wala nang katutubo.”

(If the forests disappear, so too will indigenous people.)

Now the story moves outward: from the seed being planted to sprouting a fresh bud. Outward vigilance, seeing how place, culture, and future are interwoven.

Sierra Madre isn’t just backdrop; it’s the country’s last great spine of forest. Landscape profiles count over 3,500 recorded species here, about 45% of all species in the Philippines and at least 58% of them are endemic to this mountain range. It also contains dozens of protected areas, and its northern part, the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, is described as the largest protected area in the country and richest in genetic, species, and habitat diversity. These are the living margins that keep communities like Lovely’s fed, watered, and sheltered.

Against this richness sits a familiar pressure. The New Centennial Water Source–Kaliwa Dam slices into the Sierra Madre corridor and the Kaliwa River system. Civil society monitoring and news reports flag risks that include submerging about 291 hectares of forest, impacting habitat for around 126 species, and raising downstream flood risk for as many as 100,000 residents. This is on top of displacing Dumagat-Remontado families who have long stewarded these lands and waters. The Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance estimates around 1,465 families stand directly in the path. Project updates in 2024–2025 show the build pressing on, with the NEDA Board approving a cost hike from ₱12.2B to ₱15.3B this year.

In 2022, the DENR briefly held the project’s ECC; by March 2024, authorities were reporting construction milestones again.

What GLA and UGNAYIN PH made possible

“Kapag may nag-post ng isyu, shine-share ng iba. May espasyo din makapagbigay ng mungkahi.

(When someone posts about an issue, others share it. There is space to offer suggestions.)

Through the Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) and UGNAYIN PH, Lovely found both strength and stance. With practical training in writing, documentation, governance, and a peer network that stands by her, her awareness was woven into the collective. She met connection, solidarity, and mentoring. UGNAYIN PH reframed leadership for her: it’s less about volume and more about presence; less perfection, more practice; less solitary, more collective.

It’s where the youth leader learned to try, to miss, and try again.

A culture to return to

“ICCA,” she stated with confidence. “Kung hindi idodokumento at poprotektahan ang kultura, baka hindi na matutunan ng kabataan. Dito, may mababalikan sila.”

(ICCA. If we don’t document and protect culture, the youth may not learn it. With ICCAs, there’s something to return to.)

When we asked which advocacy gripped her heart the most, she didn’t even blink – ICCA (Indigenous Community Conserved Areas.) For Lovely, conserving land is not an abstract concept. The bill is important to her because it anchors her to her ancestral domain. For her, it is lived reality and experience, the life where her father taught plant medicine, her people’s story where the wind is first felt in the trees, the river whose colors mark the seasons.

Here, transformation has become purpose. The sprout is beginning to grow buds, the voice of a leader is bending towards where the sun is, a purpose in defense of land and culture.

Mentoring the next ones

“Ginagawa nila akong ate-ate. Humihingi sila ng gabay sa gawain,” she says, half-shy, half-proud.

(They treat me like an older sister. They ask for guidance with tasks.)

It’s easy to miss how radical Lovely’s transformation had been. A young woman whose own identity was used to silence and ridicule her, but now she is guiding new officers in her community organization find their footing; the youth who used to sit outside meetings now drafting the documents that move decisions forward.

Here, Lovely’s journey is akin to buds now spreading, pollinating. From “I can speak” to “We can lead.”

A life she’s building toward

“Pinagpe-pray ko ang stable job na gusto ko, na kaya ko, na hindi ako mapi-pressure.”

(I pray for a stable job that I like, one that I can sustain without too much pressure.)

No performance here. Just honest timing, capacity, and care for self. What does a good future feel like to her?

“Pangarap kong magkaroon ng peaceful life.” (I dream of a peaceful life.)

She dreams of ordinary peace. Fewer fights for survival; more calm days when the hardest choice is what to harvest together with the land instead of battles.

Lovely’s journey isn’t a clean before-and-after and it is far from complete. It is much like harvest, where if one tends to the land, it gifts abundance. From safety, voice, skill, trust, purpose, mentorship, and now a livable future, and hopefully not in the too distant future.

Her skill and spirit, fear and practice, community and courage; all of these are tended to with the strength of other youth at UGNAYIN PH, the guidance and mentorship of NTFP-EP Philippines, and the support of GLA. She wasn’t just “capacitated”; she continues a life where she is reclaiming and rebuilding her voice. Her skills / gifts are now in service of the forests, her culture, her community, and for a future where Agta / Dumagat-Remontado youth can still come home to who they are, amongst lush and peaceful forests.

And because September 26 is Save Sierra Madre Day, we carry this story with intention. The day was proclaimed to mark the lessons of Typhoon Ondoy from 2009. It is a reminder that forests are not mere scenery but also protectors. They are flood buffers, water towers, climate shields. On this week each year, calls to “Save Sierra Madre” echo a simple truth that Lovely names: if the forests go, so do life. Our role is clear: stand with the forests and with the indigenous peoples who keep it alive.