FEB.

20, 2012 DATE

NR # 2685B
REF. NO.

Lawmaker moves to review the Indigenous Peoples Right Act

A lawmaker today moved to hasten the review and proposed amendments to the Indigenous Peoples Right Act of 1997 saying it has not achieved its objective to alleviate the welfare of the indigenous peoples in the country. Scarce natural resources located in lands owned by our indigenous people by virtue of birthright and by law are being exploited by private individuals and companies without any agreement with their owners, said Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat (Lone District, Ifugao), author of House Bill 4563. The bill seeks to amend Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA). It calls for the creation of a Joint Oversight Congressional Committee to monitor the implementation of the law. The committee shall be composed of five senators and five congressmen. The bill provides that the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be ex-officio members and the chairmen of the Senate Committee of Cultural Communities and the House Committee on National Cultural Communities will cochair the joint oversight panel. Likewise, the Senate President and the Speaker shall appoint the respective members of the committee. The oversight panel shall also have the power to implement policy changes, review the decisions as well as recommend disciplinary action on the NCIP, which is supposed to be the first and last line of defense acting in behalf of the indigenous peoples in the country. Baguilat said the review on RA 8371 should also include reports that the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) is in collusion with individuals and other parties in taking advantage of the lack of knowledge and benign nature of the indigenous peoples. Why are vast tracts of ancestral domain ending up in the hands of the private sector and their original owners the indigenous peoples uprooted from the lands they have possessed since time immemorial? Baguilat asked. What promised to be a shining beacon of hope for its beneficiaries has been dimmed by the passage of time, the bureaucratic muddle and the ineptness of those who have been tasked to oversee the implementation of the IPRA, the Baguilat said. Baguilat, Chairman of the House Committee on National Cultural Communities, has referred the bill to the Committee on Appropriations for its appropriate comments relative to the funding provisions of the measure before final committee endorsement to plenary. (30) dpt