Dagitab
IPRA and the NCIP: Rule of law or the ruling class?
Danielle Nakpil
To talk about the law is to talk about it in the language of an expert. This is what we often believe. But the law is supposed to protect the people and their rights, to sanction and to liberate.
So much has already happened since members of national minority groups flocked to Manila to demand the right to self-determination that has been neglected by the State. Since then, I’ve been asking myself where the problem started. That is something I cannot easily answer. But there is one thing I am sure of: the problem of hunger, poverty, the displacement of indigenous people, and many more, would not have resulted in blood and damage if the law that was supposed to protect them was sufficiently and effectively implemented.
The IPRA or the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997 (R.A. No. 8370) is “an act to recognize and promote the rights of indigenous cultural communities/indigenous people, creating the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, establishing implementing mechanisms appropriating funds thereof, and for other purposes.”
I do not have to be a lawyer to know that the rule of law is the best protection provided by the State. The same goes for IPs.
IPRA contains provisions such as rights to ancestral domain, right to self-governance and empowerment, social justice and human rights, cultural integrity, delineation and recognition of ancestral domains, jurisdiction and procedures for enforcement of rights, and ancestral domains fund and penalties.
Given these provisions, we should not be talking about issues such as landgrabbing and lack of self-determination. The country’s indigenous peoples should be living peacefully in their ancestral lands.
​
If you notice, the law was well thought-out and drafted. As a journalism student who is taking courses in public administration, I understand that -
Photo by Mark Kevin Reginio
litigation serves as safeguard to the rights of the minority, which should be difficult to be tampered with by anyone who, in return, will face threats and sanctions. But the problem boils down to the implementation. A law, no matter how beautifully written, is toothless without proper execution.
​
The National Commission of Indigenous People (NCIP) is the agency that implements IPRA. THE NCIP is therefore pivotal to the success of fulfilling the law. Unfortunately, there have been reports that the commission is not being faithful to its mandate. According to an article by Davao Today early this October, 3,000 Lumad and Moro leaders of Sandugo, an alliance of minority groups, protested in front of the NCIP office on October 18.
​
They demanded the NCIP and IPRA be scrapped because it did not do them any good. Instead, it favored only the powerful, including the government.
The same sentiments were given at the dialogue of the Lakbayanis on October 24 with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Many of the IP leaders were calling out the NCIP for favoring multinational companies, most particularly mining companies, by giving them permits that damage the natural state of ancestral lands.
Another criticism that the NCIP has been receiving is the long and expensive process of securing Certificates of Ancestral Domain Title and Land Title (CADTs/CALTs), as said in reports by the UP System.
These documents prove that land belongs to an IP group or community. A CADT serves as their protection from big businesses who want to enter ancestral domains. Moreover, there is a provision in the law that an outsider cannot own any ancestral land. Clearly, however, foreign mining companies were given permits by the NCIP to operate in ancestral domains through under the table negotiations.
There is an issue of non-implementation of IPRA by the NCIP, as well as many other underlying problems like corruption. I would not want IPRA to be abolished because, as I said earlier, this is a good law. Only the implementation is problematic.
What I would suggest is for the NCIP to be reorganized by the president since it was transferred to the Office of the President during the Aquino administration. It is only he who has the power to revisit and tweak it. It would also be better if consultations with different IP groups are conducted on how the NCIP must function. Lastly, corruption must be eradicated in the said agency.
The rule of law must be above all. And the law is meant to liberate, not oppress. Where do our indigenous people stand when the law only serves the ruling class?
