Sinot elected Baguio IP Rep in City Council despite barbs

By March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio City Council here has a new member as Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR).

Roger Dalisdis Sinot, who was elected, is an Ibaloy who traces his bloodline along with the descendants of Piraso (one name) of the Kafagway area.

He had been a leading advocate of IP rights. 

Supporters of IPMR are not surprised that the selection for a new member to the city council would be attacked on all sides.

Pinsao-Irisan Ancestral Lands Cluster member Rey B. Suello said, the method of selection steered by national and local guidelines was challenging for both the nominees and the electors as this was the first time that the IPMR process would be implemented.

The consensus on the election of the IPMR that proceeded last Nov. 4 at the Ibaloy Heritage Garden at Burnham Park was facilitated by the Baguio office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples under lawyer Harriet N. Abyadang.

At least five Ibaloys presented themselves as candidate-nominees namely; former Onjon ni Ivadoy president Jackson Chiday of Loakan, ex-barangay chairman Basilio Binay-an of Loakan, IP book author Vicky Macay also of Loakan, public school teacher Michael Alos of Camp 7, ex-barangay chair of Pinsao and Baguio Council of Elders chair Roger D. Sinot.

But a few days after Sinot won over the other nominees, Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan hit the process of selection saying it has excluded other IP groups such as the Kankanaeys and Kalanguyas and confined the voting and selection to the Ibaloy group.

Prior to the selection on Nov. 4, the Cordillera People’s Alliance through Vice Chairperson Jill K. Carino said, “It is a promising development that the Ibaloys in Baguio City have selected their first IPMR to the Baguio City Council.”

Carino is a descendant of Kafagway (Baguio) headman Mateo Carino who championed the “native title” or private landownership prior to the arrival of foreign colonizers.

As agreed on by the plenary-assembly in a consensus, selection would be through secret balloting, after the five candidates failed to come up with an agreement among themselves (Tongtongan) on who would sit as first IPMR in the city council of Baguio.

The plenary-assembly was tasked by the national and local selection guidelines to come up with a consensus to endorse one of the five candidates as IPMR in case the Tongtongan of the nominees was unsuccessful. But that failed too.

Abyadang said, she was confident of the selection process the plenary had undergone, along with the local guidelines that the assembly ratified.

The amendment and ratification processes of the selection guidelines was witnessed by Councilor Art Alladiw while counting of the ballots was assisted by Zee Radio block timer and former barangay chair Peter Wasing of Quirino Hill.      

The set of guidelines for the selection process was approved and signed by members of the assembly who belonged to the Ibaloy, Kankanaey and Kalanguya Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs) who are residents in the city, prior to the secret balloting.

The set of guidelines that was ratified in the morning prior to voting required that to be a qualified voter in the first IPMR selection, one must be able to trace his lineage to any of Baguio’s original family of Ibaloy settlers, and must be a resident in the city.

Of the more than 300 registrants who belonged to the Ibaloy, Kankanaey and Kalanguya ICCs, only 195 were qualified to vote.

The rest of the assembly stood as observers in the selection process while the others in good conscience left the voting area upon knowing that they were not qualified to vote.

Carino said the CPA “also thanks the IP migrants in Baguio City who issued a resolution during the Cordillera Elders conference held last August 29-30 pushing and expressing support for the Ibaloys to sit as an IPMR in the council, in recognition as the original inhabitants of Kafagway.”

“We look forward to working with Roger Sinot as our new IPMR to advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the City,” Carino said.