IP Month, NCIP and IPRA
>> Friday, October 13, 2023
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
BAGUIO CITY -- As we hold this year’s indigenous peoples month, the reasons behind the event which are the people and the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 come to mind. We copied the Indigenous Peoples' Month and Indigenous Peoples’ Day from the native Indians of America who protested against the Columbus Day events in California and Colorado.
To the American Indians, “Indigenous Peoples' Day” was celebrated to protest against the conquest of North America by Europeans who were blamed for the death of native Indians and their culture through disease, warfare, massacre, and forced assimilation.
If we acted like the native Indians in America, the IPRA anniversary could have been marked with protests against Spanish and American colonizers and the injustices, prejudices and biases that they committed. But we chose to celebrate IP month in a subdued way.
On October 5, 2009; then President Gloria M. Arroyo signed Proclamation No. 1906 s. 2009 that declared the month of October of every year as “National Indigenous Peoples Month”, and issued Proclamation No. 486 that declared October 29 as National Indigenous Peoples Thanksgiving Day to recognize IPs in the Philippines.
The international IP month of October always led me back to when IPs were requested to join parades organized for the inauguration of the Charter anniversary of Baguio. But I always thought that the Charter was something that was not to be celebrated.
I believed so because the Baguio Charter of 1909 crafted by the American colonizers stirred the peaceful settlements of Ibaloys in Baguio. The Charter made the Ibaloy communities powerless, disunited and uprooted from their lands as they were asked to move away from the center.
The Charter was useful to American colonizers as it provided a semblance of legitimacy for them to officially grab and sell the lands inside the area which was to be called later as Baguio. The lands which became Baguio City were carved out from the old towns of Tuba, Itogon and La Trinidad in Benguet.
Up to now, the sale of Ibaloy lands in Baguio that were eventually declared as public lands through questionable and debatable government processes continues, despite the passage of new laws, including the IPRA of 1997.
To cite cases, around the Teachers Camp and Forbes Park areas, illegal occupation of prime lots by both rich and poor informal settlers is unquestioned and given more importance by the government, but IP ancestral land applications are opposed.
In fact, these sections of Baguio have already been segregated into barangays in sneaky fashion by two previous politicians who certainly made millions out of their acts. The situation noticed here was that applications for land titling were approved in contrast to ancestral land titles that were cancelled.
That is why discussions and debates regarding ancestral lands in Baguio and the Cordillera provinces do not stop. In some way, sustaining and ventilating land issues in the minds of the public remind us that there is more that needs to be done to correct the injustices in the past.
After 26 years of the IPRA, we still greet this month’s Indigenous Peoples celebration with mixed feelings. All these 26 years of living under the IPRA, indigenous communities are still fighting subjugation and discrimination perpetrated by a government agency that was tasked to protect them.
On the other hand, many Baguio IPs choose to escape from the sad truth of a continuing injustice by holding their own little festivals, drowning the real issues with “inom and pulutan” (IP), and temporarily setting aside the realities.
As for the host LGUs in partnership with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the lead office tasked to implement the IPRA, both have the means to hold IP activities on issues close to the heart of their clients instead of sponsoring IP anniversaries that only last until the guest speaker leaves after a heavy lunch.
As an alternative to the celebration of the IP month, I suggest an unsolicited proposal for all concerned agencies to organize assemblies where distinct problems and issues affecting IPs in a certain LGU could be discussed.
In Baguio, various topics of discussions would surely catch the attention of participants. These could include the IPRA, ancestral lands, the Baguio charter, Townsite Sales Applications, Regalian Doctrine vs. Carino Doctrine or Native Title and other discussions.
On February 23, 2023; US Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. recognized the rights of Mateo Cariño, an Ibaloy elder whose land was taken and converted to a military reservation by the Americans. The Cariño Doctrine was the basis for inclusion of a provision in the 1987 Constitution which also became the foundation for the IPRA in 1997.
A discussion on how the IPRA was born, including how the respective bills of Sen. Juan Flavier and Representative Gregorio Andolana in congress were consolidated to become RA 8371, would be a very interesting part of any IP month celebration or IPRA anniversary program.
Instead of praising an IP organization for soliciting pigs; even a simple lecture of an IP culture, our Igorot ways, food and clothing, livelihood, conflicts and how we resolve them could be more fruitful and meaningful projects in celebration of the IP month. All these, but some commissioners and some of their regional directors are always busy with their personal interests.
BAGUIO CITY -- As we hold this year’s indigenous peoples month, the reasons behind the event which are the people and the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 come to mind. We copied the Indigenous Peoples' Month and Indigenous Peoples’ Day from the native Indians of America who protested against the Columbus Day events in California and Colorado.
To the American Indians, “Indigenous Peoples' Day” was celebrated to protest against the conquest of North America by Europeans who were blamed for the death of native Indians and their culture through disease, warfare, massacre, and forced assimilation.
If we acted like the native Indians in America, the IPRA anniversary could have been marked with protests against Spanish and American colonizers and the injustices, prejudices and biases that they committed. But we chose to celebrate IP month in a subdued way.
On October 5, 2009; then President Gloria M. Arroyo signed Proclamation No. 1906 s. 2009 that declared the month of October of every year as “National Indigenous Peoples Month”, and issued Proclamation No. 486 that declared October 29 as National Indigenous Peoples Thanksgiving Day to recognize IPs in the Philippines.
The international IP month of October always led me back to when IPs were requested to join parades organized for the inauguration of the Charter anniversary of Baguio. But I always thought that the Charter was something that was not to be celebrated.
I believed so because the Baguio Charter of 1909 crafted by the American colonizers stirred the peaceful settlements of Ibaloys in Baguio. The Charter made the Ibaloy communities powerless, disunited and uprooted from their lands as they were asked to move away from the center.
The Charter was useful to American colonizers as it provided a semblance of legitimacy for them to officially grab and sell the lands inside the area which was to be called later as Baguio. The lands which became Baguio City were carved out from the old towns of Tuba, Itogon and La Trinidad in Benguet.
Up to now, the sale of Ibaloy lands in Baguio that were eventually declared as public lands through questionable and debatable government processes continues, despite the passage of new laws, including the IPRA of 1997.
To cite cases, around the Teachers Camp and Forbes Park areas, illegal occupation of prime lots by both rich and poor informal settlers is unquestioned and given more importance by the government, but IP ancestral land applications are opposed.
In fact, these sections of Baguio have already been segregated into barangays in sneaky fashion by two previous politicians who certainly made millions out of their acts. The situation noticed here was that applications for land titling were approved in contrast to ancestral land titles that were cancelled.
That is why discussions and debates regarding ancestral lands in Baguio and the Cordillera provinces do not stop. In some way, sustaining and ventilating land issues in the minds of the public remind us that there is more that needs to be done to correct the injustices in the past.
After 26 years of the IPRA, we still greet this month’s Indigenous Peoples celebration with mixed feelings. All these 26 years of living under the IPRA, indigenous communities are still fighting subjugation and discrimination perpetrated by a government agency that was tasked to protect them.
On the other hand, many Baguio IPs choose to escape from the sad truth of a continuing injustice by holding their own little festivals, drowning the real issues with “inom and pulutan” (IP), and temporarily setting aside the realities.
As for the host LGUs in partnership with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the lead office tasked to implement the IPRA, both have the means to hold IP activities on issues close to the heart of their clients instead of sponsoring IP anniversaries that only last until the guest speaker leaves after a heavy lunch.
As an alternative to the celebration of the IP month, I suggest an unsolicited proposal for all concerned agencies to organize assemblies where distinct problems and issues affecting IPs in a certain LGU could be discussed.
In Baguio, various topics of discussions would surely catch the attention of participants. These could include the IPRA, ancestral lands, the Baguio charter, Townsite Sales Applications, Regalian Doctrine vs. Carino Doctrine or Native Title and other discussions.
On February 23, 2023; US Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. recognized the rights of Mateo Cariño, an Ibaloy elder whose land was taken and converted to a military reservation by the Americans. The Cariño Doctrine was the basis for inclusion of a provision in the 1987 Constitution which also became the foundation for the IPRA in 1997.
A discussion on how the IPRA was born, including how the respective bills of Sen. Juan Flavier and Representative Gregorio Andolana in congress were consolidated to become RA 8371, would be a very interesting part of any IP month celebration or IPRA anniversary program.
Instead of praising an IP organization for soliciting pigs; even a simple lecture of an IP culture, our Igorot ways, food and clothing, livelihood, conflicts and how we resolve them could be more fruitful and meaningful projects in celebration of the IP month. All these, but some commissioners and some of their regional directors are always busy with their personal interests.
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