DAVAO CITY – Members of non-Moro Indigenous Peoples (IPs), ,especially those from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), will make a last-ditch effort for inclusion of contentious issues to the proposed new Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
The contentious issues concerning the non-Moro IPs will be consolidated and presented during the three-day Mindanao Indigenous People Legislative Assembly (Mipla) for the BBL on August 29 to September 1 at the Mergrande Ocean Resort here. There will be an estimated 270 delegates who are expected to attend the assembly.
Lawyer Reuben Lingating, speaker for Mipla and the chair of the IP Peace Panel of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp), said the non-Moro IPs are not losing hope that they will reach their objective and their voices heard so that their rights are protected from the exclusive powers of the Bangsamoro region.
Mipla will facilitate the interface of the Tribal Legislative Assembly with the leaders of Congress and the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC). Lingating said Mipla invited House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III.
Mipla will serve as a platform for non-Moro IPs to present their views with the hope of incorporating these to the proposed new BBL.
He explained that the IPs came to the fore because the IP peace panel was only created last April, the month when the BTC was mid-way in crafting the new BBL.
Lingating said the non-IPs will seek a viable settlement not necessarily political but through a traditional or cultural practice of negotiations.
He also emphasized on re-affirmation of brotherhood that exists among the IPs. Lingating clarified the assembly will not be confrontational or adversarial but a meeting of the minds and opportunity to ventilate IP-related issues.
Lingating stressed that Mindanao’s non-Moro IPs have expressed their desire to join the proposed Bangsamoro government except that they want a Bangsamoro law that is non-regressive in the recognition of their rights.
“By non-regressive, we should not in any way, through any legislation, diminish what the non-Moro IPs have right now. Otherwise, they will be unjustly differentiated from the rest of the Mindanao IPs who are enjoying their rights under the protection of existing laws,” he said.
Lingating said the expected main output of the Mipla is the formal legislative proposals.
One of the contentious issues that may be raised is the ancestral domain claims that until now have never been titled.
Lingating said there are more than 300,000 hectares not yet titled straddling 12 municipalities. There are still IPs in other regions in Mindanao. The large part of the IP population is within the Armm namely the Tedurays, Lambangian and Dulangan Manobo. A 2013 IP Dev survey, showed that Armm has 117,189 IPs.
Lingating recalled that the 1987 Constitution recognizes the rights of the IPs to claim territory and ten years after, the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (Ipra) was passed reaffirming the protection of the IPs rights.
“In the Constitution, there is what we call the equal protection clause. This means that Congress cannot pass a law that treats a similarly situated group of people differently,” he pointed out.
He also underscored the Free Prior and Informed Concern (FPIC) wherein all activities within the ancestral domain should pass through a process inscribed in Ipra.
“The non-Moro IPs have expressed their discomfort over certain provisions of the BBL. And so we want to ask delegates to the assembly: What is really your discomfort? What we can do to address them?” Lingating said.
Lingating pointed out the non-Moro IPs just want to assert what is rightly theirs. “That is their birthright. If they are worried about certain provisions of the BBL, we have to find ways to address them through the Mipla,” he added.
The Mipla will be backed by another group of IPs, who will be holding the 7th Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Convention from August 29-31 at the Felis Resort Complex here.
Datu Joel Unad, the Tribal chieftain of the Obu Manuvu Tribe in Marilog District, Davao City, said the convention is aimed at reaffirming the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Conference for Peace and Development (MIPCPD) goals in advancing the rights of the IPs in Mindanao.
The IPs will also secure their position in national discussions on the issue of Federalism. Unad said the IPs will also support the non-Moro IPs during the Mipla. The MIPC convention will be attended by about 370 delegates. (Lilian C. Mellejor/PNA)
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