By Ben Serrano,Correspondent
BUTUAN City — The United Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao demands a total revamp of officials and personnel of the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) offices across the country during its recently concluded conference here.
The group is also appealing to the President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to lay down its comprehensive national program for development and conflict management for some 1.2 million lumads of the island and the other 2.4 million indigenes of the country.
During the same conference, the tribal leaders observed that the existence of NCIP as the principal government agency to into the plight of the indigenous peoples is no longer relevant to their present needs because the plight of the indigenes is still the same or have even worsened.
The Philippines is the very first country in Southeast Asia to enact a law recognizing the traditional rights of Indigenous People over their ancestral domains with the Indigenous Peoples’ Right Act of 1997 (Ipra Law).
“Yet the (indigenes) in this country remain the most marginalized (sector) despite (the) passage of Ipra Law. That’s the reason why I called for the holding of the first Min-danao United Lumad Forum because aside from poverty, injustice and total lack of opportunities including total destruction of ancestral domains by irresponsible mining companies, the most immediate problem that needed to be address now is how to unite lumads divided by different aspirations, interests both vested and self interest influenced by outside forces,” United Indigenous People of Mindanao head con-venor Enrique “Ike” Gavi-leno said.
Gavileno said the forum was first step to unite the indigenous people of Min-danao.
Attended by nearly 200 tribal leaders from 17 tribes in Mindanao, the seven hours forum considered to be the biggest gathering so far initiated by private group without funding from government came out with the following recognition of pressing problems of the indigenous people in Minda-nao that needed to be address as soon as possible.
Among problems raised at the forum were: worsening poverty due continuing government neglect in the delivery of social services; internal lumad conflict management and reconciliation; continuing problems in health and sanitation; education, majority of lumad not beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer of the government; and being caught in the middle of the crossfire in armed conflict that have caused massive evacuation, loss of lives in hundreds, thousands due to the continuing insurgency problem.
The group also want a total shutdown of irresponsible mining and construction firms buildings roads, dams without proper free prior consent and genuine consultations destroying fishing, burial grounds, agricultural lands and entire ancestral domains served as their home for centuries.
Strengthening of customary justice and judicial and belief systems; and enforcement of mandatory representation in different councils of local government where indigenous people communities exist.
