[In the news] Bukidnon, 1st province in PH to comply with mandatory IP representation – NCIP -Bukidnon News
Bukidnon, 1st province in PH to comply with mandatory IP representation – NCIP
By Walter I. Balane, Bukidnon News
March 7, 2012
MALAYBALAY CITY (Bukidnon News/06 March 2012) Bukidnon is becoming the first province in the country to comply with mandatory representation of the indigenous peoples in all levels of local government, a requirement provided by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), Ma. Shirlene Sario, provincial officer of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) said.
Sario said IP representatives have been selected in all of the province’s 462 barangays, 20 of its 22 towns and cities, and one for the whole province making it the first province to do so in all levels as provided in Section 16 of Republic Act 8371 or the IPRA of 1997.
The NCIP Bukidnon office clarified that the selection of the IP representatives of the municipalities of Kadingilan, Kibawe, and San Fernando “are in progress.”
“It’s our schedule that does not allow us to catch up (with the target),” she added.
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan has scheduled an oath-taking ceremony of the municipal, city, and provincial level IP representatives Wednesday.
The first mandatory IP representative to the provincial board, Datu Magdaleno Maida Pandian, a Manobo and the municipal tribal chieftain of Maramag town was selected on March 2 during the first assembly of the IP representatives to the municipal and city councils here.
Sario said the selection process was mostly bottoms up, except in two towns where previously their municipal representatives have been selected because their municipal tribal council are active. The NCIP, which assumes a facilitative and documentation role in the selection, has initiated the selection in March 2010.
The national guideline for mandatory representation was issued by NCIP in 2009 but most local government units did not implement it until the Department of Interior and Local Government issued Memorandum Circular 2010-119.
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