GROUPS in the Cordillera region are pushing for an indigenous peoples agenda for President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.
Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA) with other indigenous organizations in the country under Katribu, a national alliance of indigenous peoples, will submit the Indigenous Peoples (IP) Agenda to Duterte this month.
Components of the IP agenda include the titling of ancestral lands and domain, the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and the Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Indigenous Peoples, the GRP and the MILF Peace Talks and the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) and the GRP and the NDF Peace Talks, human Rights violations, mining and other development projects, and conflicting laws.
The prepared agenda has called on Duterte to give special attention to the plight of Indigenous Peoples in terms of poverty reduction and eradication measures, and improvement of basic social services.
The IP Agenda reiterates the call on both parties, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, to recognize the peace pacts forged through history between different Indigenous Peoples and Muslims in Mindanao. It also calls on the GRP, MILF and NDF to establish or create an appropriate body to ensure the effective participation of indigenous peoples across the country.
Members of this body should be selected by Indigenous Peoples themselves, added the agenda.
Duterte is also being asked to declare a moratorium on large-scale mining and conduct a review of existing mining policies in the country.
It further calls on the government to exclude indigenous people's sacred sites, critical watersheds and sanctuaries from mining and other development projects.
The IP Agenda also called on the incoming President to require mining companies to rehabilitate degraded and mined-out areas, and compensate indigenous peoples affected by landslides, erosions and sinkholes.
Furthermore, the IP Agenda calls for the government to ensure a genuine free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples be obtained before other development projects such as mega hydroelectric dams are brought into their communities. (Maria Elena Catajan)