Katribu: Defund, dismantle NCIP for fund misuse, abuses

INDIGENOUS Peoples groups and advocates, led by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and Sandugo - Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination, picketed the House of Representatives recently as 2024 national budget deliberations were ongoing.
    The groups protested against approval of the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples’ (NCIP) 2024 proposed budget and called for defunding of the Commission.
 “The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples deserves no budget allocation this 2024 and for the years to come. In its 26 years of existence, NCIP has been an instrument of disservice and rights violations among indigenous communities,” said Beverly Longid, national convenor of Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas.
    According to Longid, the NCIP has been repeatedly flagged for injudicious spending by the Commission on Audit (COA).
    The COA has questioned the NCIP’s spending of over P1million for a two-day NTF-ELCAC “Regional Action Planning Workshop'' in 2020. The COA also flagged the NCIP’s expenditure amounting to P4.815 million for similar activities in 2018 and 2019.
    “These kinds of expenses are gross misappropriation of funds supposedly for IP community development and promotion and protection of their rights,” Longid said.
    Meanwhile, Eufemia Cullamat, spokesperson of Sandugo - Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination, lambasted both the NCIP and NTF-ELCAC’s roles on the government’s counter-insurgency program. Cullamat exposed how NCIP Chairperson Allen Capuyan still takes significant roles in the task force’s implementation of its IP-centric “whole-of-nation approach” as one of the Cabinet Officers for Regional Development and Security (CORDS) of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict for Region 13. 

“Kahit na hindi na executive director ng NTF-ELCAC si Capuyan, batid natin ang maraming kaso ng paglabag ng task force sa karapatang pantao. Kaya ang NCIP at mga opisyal nito ay may makabuluhang papel pa rin sa pagpapatupad ng tuloy-tuloy na atake ng NTF-ELCAC sa mga katutubo.”

The NCIP with its chair Allen Capuyan have also been subjected to investigation due to cases of corruption. These include the anomalous 7-million pesos worth of coffee table books and the commission’s solicitation of funds from mining companies. An administrative case was also filed against Capuyan and Commissioner Cayat at the Ombudsman for falsifying FPIC documents for the operations of National Cement Corporation/San Miguel Northern Cement Inc. (NCC/SMNCI) in Bag-o’s ancestral land in Pangasinan.

 “Taxpayers money should be used to improve the lives of the people and should never be used to hamper their rights, and worse, to prosecute and kill people. Hence, the NCIP and NTF-ELCAC should be defunded and dismantled, with its funds reallocated in genuine service of the Filipino people,” Longid said.