IPs seek separate state in Mindanao

The Indigenous People’s Conference of the Philippines (IPCP) is batting for self-governance through a proposed federal state for the indigenous peoples in Mindanao.

In a position paper submitted by the IPCP to the Office of the President, the Mindanao Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICC/IP) aims to create the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Federal Region that will further address the needs of the indigenous people through an indigenous political structure.

“While we express our strong support in the move for the change of government, there is a weight of assertion to have our own IP state,” said Datu Makugi Arnold Singson, IPCP Secretary General.

The proposed IP region aims to be given government powers that will enable them to develop their ancestral domains in accordance with their  needs.

The push for a separate federal state came after the recently conducted Indigenous Peoples (IP) Leaders Summit last February 1 at Naval Station Felix Apolinario in Panacan.

IPCP President Datu Marcelo Alejo, Jr. said that the move was made after their review of the draft constitution submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte.

“This is one of our crusades that we hope the president would look into, which is our assertion in creating this Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Federal Region which would enshrined as a new provision in the Constitution,” Alejo said.

He added, “We are already left behind. We have a huge territory wherein we have what we call the right to exercise for self-governance and self-determination. So how can we exercise our rights if our ancestral domains are being managed by others?”

Under the proposed IP region, they will be granted legislative powers within its territorial jurisdiction subject to the provisions of the Constitution and national laws over administrative organization, creation of sources of revenues, ancestral domain and  natural resources, personal, family and property relations, regional and rural planning development, economic, social and tourism development, educational policies, preservation and development of cultural heritage and other matters that may be authorized by law for the promotion of the regional welfare of the people.

“With the federal state afforded to us as indigenous people, from the ground to state level, there will no hidden interest because they are all governed by the IPs”, Datu Singson said.

 

 

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