Organizing the indigenous peoples

BANTAY GOBYERNO

Ike Señeres

With the support of Congressman Ronald Cosalan of the lone district of Benguet, Atty. David Daoas, Mr. Manueldatu Rebueno and I are organizing a national council of indigenous peoples, yet to be born and yet to be baptized with a name. Congressman Cosalan is the co-author of the Indigenous Peoples Republic Act (IPRA), together with the late distinguished Senator Juan Flavier.

Both Congressman Cosalan and Senator Flavier are descended from illustrious northern tribes. The IPRA law is the legislation that recognized the rights of indigenous peoples, and gave them titles to their ancestral domains by way of the Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs). It also created the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

From 1987 to 1995, Cosalan served as Executive Director of the Office for Northern Cultural Communities, one of the precursors of the NCIP. The other precursor is the Office for Southern Cultural Communities. Both offices were later on combined to form the NCIP. Atty. Daoas is himself a member of an illustrious northern tribe.

He was the first Commissioner of the NCIP. Mr. Rebueno does not belong to an indigenous tribe, but he served as an official of the Mt. Pinatubo Commission, where he had the opportunity to serve the indigenous tribes of Central Luzon. I too am not a member of an indigenous tribe, but I was born in the mountain homelands of the Mandaya tribes, and I grew up amongst the Manobo tribes of Agusan. I was also adopted as an honorary Datu by the Talaandig tribe of Bukidnon, and I believe that my ancestry could be traced to the Sulodnon-Panaynon-Bukidnon tribes of Capiz.

 It is a known fact that up to now, there is no national council that could represent all of the northern, central and southern indigenous peoples of the Philippines. The idea for a national council after Atty. Daoas, Mr. Rebueno and I discussed the possibility that we could pattern the ideology of the said national council after the “First Nations” legal framework that is fully recognized by the Dominion of Canada.

Under the framework, Canada recognizes the moral ascendancy of their indigenous peoples, being the “First Nations” that settled in the Canadian territories long before the Europeans came to settle. Here in the Philippines, it could also be said that our indigenous peoples are our own “First Nations”.

 By comparison, it could be said that the issuance of CADTs is a more respectable approach towards treating our indigenous peoples, because they are given legal titles to their lands, unlike in the United States where the indigenous peoples are only given the residency rights to live inside the Indian Reservations, but they do not have titles to the lands that they live in.

In fairness however, the U.S. government is giving more support to their Indian Reservations, compared to the supports that the Philippine government is giving to our ancestral domains. That is one shortcoming that would hopefully be addressed by the national council that we are organizing.

While the legal rights given by the CADT appears to be solid, there is really more than meets the eye, because not all of the ancestral domains have been granted CADTs, and many of these domains are in legal encumbrances that would make it difficult to acquire them under the IPRA law. It seems that the only legal way to reacquire these other domains is to buy them back within the legal framework of our existing real estate laws.

In cases where legal acquisition is not possible, there are other ways wherein legal occupancy is possible, or perhaps other forms of commercial use could also be possible, under certain contractual relationships. Whichever way, what is important is that our indigenous peoples could go back to where their ancestral roots are.

Other than the CADT framework, the other legal frameworks that could be explored are (1) the Indigenous Communities Conservation Area (ICCA), (2) the Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA), (3) the National Greening Program (NGP) and (4) the Public-Private Partnership Program (PPPP). ICCA is an international framework that is supported by the United Nations.

It recognizes the roles of indigenous communities in the conservation of natural areas, regardless of whether they are tribal or not, and regardless of whether they have legal titles to the lands or not. It pursues the legal fiction that these communities have been doing the conservation work for hundreds if not thousands of years, and they should be recognized and supported for doing so. The IFMA, the NGP and the PPPP are programs of the Philippine government that could be tapped for the benefit of the indigenous peoples.

 In the U.S. many tribal associations have already succeeded in raising money so that they could buy back their ancestral domains, specifically those that have not been set aside as Indian Reservations, and those that have already fallen into private hands. Believe it or not, some of the lands that have been reacquired by the tribal associations have mountains and rivers within, thus giving it an additional conservation dimension.

Here in the Philippines, legal occupancy by way of the IFMA, the NGP and the PPPP would be a good start, but the long term goal should really be legal possession. For that matter, there are many lands that have already been declared as alienable and disposable by the government, and our own tribal associations could start applying for these lands already.

 Also here in the Philippines, the so-called tribal councils are not formally organized, and very few of them are registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Although many of them are registered with the NCIP, that other registration does not really give them the legal personality that an SEC registration could give. I think that the better approach is to organize tribal associations that would be governed by the tribal councils. In turn, the tribal associations could be the building blocks upon which the national council could be built. Although the SEC registration would give the tribal associations the official authority of the national government, it is still important to honor the traditional authority of the tribal councils.

 As it is now, the IPRA law gives the indigenous peoples the rights to be represented in the municipal councils and the provincial boards, but the selection of representatives appears to be arbitrary and subject to much political maneuverings. In many municipalities and provinces, these rights are yet to be honored.

Our hope is that the planned national council will be instrumental in making the selection process more transparent, and in making sure that the right to representation will be realized. Aside from that, the national council will also help the tribes that have not yet firmed up their CADTs due to legal and financial problems.