ACCORDING to the law, indigenous peoples (IPs) who reside in ancestral domains (ADs) deserve the right to be represented in local legislative councils at the provincial, municipal and barangay levels through an appointed Indigenous People’s Mandatory Representative (IPMR).
As I understand it, the IPMR has to be appointed by the Governor, Mayor or Barangay Chairman, as the case may be. That is the reason why these appointments would always appear to be politically motivated.
In theory, IPs who reside in the ADs would not have solid claims to their land ownerships not unless they are already awarded their Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs).
I think that is the crux of the problem why everything becomes politically motivated, because without having CADTs, IPs do not the security of tenure where they are presently residing. That could possibly become merely a play of words, because many IPs are still victimized even if they have CADTs.
As it actually happens, the actual creation of policies is decided by the majority of the legislative council members, but at least with the presence of IPMR members among their ranks, their positions on all issues could already be heard.
Without getting the majority votes however, these IPMRs could not get anything passed in these councils, not unless they agenda items are politically aligned with the heads of the local government units (LGUs).
Conversely, I could also be said that if there is nothing good coming out of these local policy councils is because the LGU heads are not doing anything, or are not doing enough.
While these councils could talk about anything they like, the bottom line is the long-term economic development of these CADTs, in such a way that the IPs could graduate from poverty in the long run, and gain access to social services in the short run.
Before any economic activity is allowed in any CADT, the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) must first be acquired from the majority of the IP residents.
Although the issuance of the FPIC is strictly the decision of the IP residents, it should become the objective of these policy councils to work with their IPMRs so that the legal and political rights of these IP communities.
The worst thing that could happen is for their rights to be violated without their consent./PN
