NCIP chairperson bares ‘demolition job’ on her

BAGUIO CITY – The government’s tribal rights body, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) is in deep trouble as the Tribal Filipino Month started Oct. 1.

NCIP chairperson Brigida-Zenaida Pawid, a Baguio-BenguetI baloi from the huge Carino clan here, confirmed a demolition job against her because “so many people are after my neck.”

"There are so many people who want me out,” she said following earlier reports that she has resigned.

The NCIP chair, who has been suspected to have been anti-mining, has denied the NCIP has an anti mining stance, saying “We are neither for nor against mining, we are for the people.”

Pawid reportedly resigned from the NCIP following an en banc meeting in Manila, but she is still waiting for the reply of the Palace.

NCIP is comprised of commissioners Roque Agton, Dionisia Banua, ConchitaCalzado, Cosme Lambayon, Santos Usad and Executive Director Basilio Wandag from Tabuk City, Kalinga.

Pawid said she remains as NCIP chairperson, adding that the position is a designation and not an appointive position until Feb. 20, 2013.  

She was appointed as commissioner of the NCIP on November 2011 and eventually got the chairmanship of the tribal rights body.

But some officials and employees of the agency called on Pawid to resign after the Ombudsman reportedly certified that she has not been filing her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

The employees claimed, the NCIP chairperson has not filed her SALN for the past 11 years, from 1990 to 2011, in violation of Republic Act 6713 otherwise known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard for Public Officials and Employees.       

Section 8 of RA 6713 requires all public officials and employees to file under oath their SALN within 30 days from the date of their assumption of office and every year thereafter.

Section 11, meanwhile, provides for penalties for violations among which are a fine not exceeding the equivalent of six months’ salary or suspension not exceeding one year, or removal from office.

Pawid, 70, was appointed to the NCIP as commissioner representing Region I and Cordillera Administrative Region in November 2010. She was named NCIP chairman on June 7, 2011, replacing lawyer RoqueAgton who remains as commissioner for Southern Mindanao.

Citizen graft buster Salvador Liked from Bontoc, Mt. Province earlier requested the Ombudsman to look into the SALN declaration of Pawid and thereafter a certification was issued by administrative assistant Arnel Larbodis, SALN–in-charge, subscribed and sworn to before graft investigation officer 1 Joseph Marion Navarette.

Officials and employees, even her niece lawyer LeileneCarantes-Gallardo, who was NCIP-Cordillera director, and now with the NCIP’s Office of Empowerment and Human Rights, said Pawid should resign immediately out of delicadeza as she “has lost legal and moral authority to continue holding on to her position.”

Four NCIP bureau directors -Dr. Carlos Buasen Jr. of the Office of Socio-Economic Services and Special Concerns, lawyer Gallardo, Dr. Marie Grace Pascua of the Office on Education, Culture and Health and MasliQuilaman of the Office on Policy, Planning and Research- have also called on Pawid to treat the employees humanely and to deal with mid-level officials professionally even as they denied any part in the poison letters condemning Pawid.

Pawid who vowed to champion the cause of the indigenous people when named to chair the  commission, they claimed, had been violating the terms and conditions of the collective negotiating agreement (CNA) with the association, NCIP Employees Association president Dong Laquibol said in a statement.

Laquibol, also the president of the National Confederation of the Independent Unions of the Philippines, said Pawid has been arbitrarily disapproving travels of NCIP employees to attend seminars and training by refusing to sign their travel orders and release of allowance in violation of the CNA.

The call for Pawid’s resignation has reportedly snowballed starting at the central office led by the bureau directors down to the regional and provincial offices for her “unprofessional treatment” of mid-level executives and dealing with employees like they were her housemaids.

An NCIP regional director in Luzon who begged off to be named said, “grabe kase siya kung umakto."