NorCot solon proposes creation of Dept. of IPs

COTABATO CITY –
North Cotabato Rep. Nancy Catamco has filed a bill in the House of
Representatives proposing the creation of Department of Indigenous Peoples
(DIP), a primary government agency tasked to formulate and implement national
policies, plans, and programs relating to the rights of Indigenous Cultural Communities
and Indigenous Peoples.

In filing
House Bill 1072, Catamco, representing North Cotabato’s second congressional
district, said the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) is at
present performing the functions related to the formulation and implementation of
policies, plans and programs to recognize, protect and promote the rights of
ICC and IPs, a department specifically created for such purpose can further
strengthen such formulation and implementation.

Towards this
end, the DIP shall engaged ICCs and IPs and all levels of government to improve
service delivery and facilitate the development of policy and programs which carry
out sustainable economic, environmental and social benefits to indigenous
communities,” Catamco said in her explanatory note.

The creation
of DIP will be a significant breakthrough to guarantee the realization of these
rights, taking into consideration their customs, traditions, values, beliefs,
their rights to their ancestral domains,” Catamco, an IP, added.

Filed in 2013,
HB 1072 has been referred to the House Committee on Cultural Communities its
status is pending.

In separate
bills, Catamco also filed House Bill 1071 seeking to establish an Indigenous
Peoples training center in Kidapawan City and House Bill 1074 that mandates the
inclusion of Indigenous Culture Education in the curricula of schools in all
levels in the country.

Both bills are
still pending in the House committee level.