Indigenes set up barricade to prevent road project

By BEN SERRANO
Correspondent

BUTUAN City––Tribesmen have set up a barricade to stop a P120-million road project being implemented from Barangay Bonbon to Nongnong, this city, allegedly because they were not consulted.

The group has invoked RA 8371, otherwise known as Indigenous People’s Rights Act (Ipra), which states that no project can be undertaken within ancestral domains of indigenes without consultation or a free prior informed consent (FPIC) from tribal groups occupying the lands. Without that, the group said no certification can be issued by the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) in favor of th project.

“We do not even know who the contractor is, the date the project was started, the project cost, the funding agency or the implementing agencies,” said tribal chieftain Aurelio Talibong Jr. or “Datu Malingat” of the Mayapay Tribal Council.