Still no Ibaloi representation on Baguio City council

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – For almost two decades, Ibalois, the original inhabitants of what is now Baguio City, have been denied political representation at the city council.

 

This has prompted Left-leaning leaders from the Cordillera at the August 29-30 “Cordillera Elders Workshop on Regional Autonomy” at the Benguet State University to issue a resolution pushing for the Ibaloi Indigenous People’s Mandatory Representative (IPMR) in the City of Baguio.  

 

The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 recognizes the right of the IP/ICC to participate fully at all levels of decision-making through procedures determined by them as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous structures.

 

The Rules and Regulations Implementing RA 8371 also provides mandatory representation to ICC/IPs in all policy-making bodies and other legislative councils.

 

NCIP AO No. 001 of 2009 also states that ICC/IPs representatives shall be qualified and chosen by their own communities in accordance with a process to be determined by them; and that the NCIP in close coordination with the DILG shall come up with appropriate measures to ensure the full participation of ICC/IPs in matters affecting their development DILG.

 

But the mandatory IP representative post has been vacant in Baguio City since, even as earlier efforts to post an IP representative in the 14-member Baguio City council failed to gather steam.

 

Ibaloi native Jill Carino said the resolution supporting the Ibaloi as indigenous peoples mandatory representative for Baguio City was discussed by the Ibaloi and migrant participants during the conference.

Carino said that the resolution also chides the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) as well as the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Baguio City LGU for failing to facilitate the implementation of these provisions of the IPRA and its IRR in Baguio City for the past 18 years. 

 

“They (have been) depriving the indigenous peoples of Baguio their right to mandatory representation in the Baguio City Council,” she said.

 

The Ibalois are the original inhabitants of what is now Baguio City, which has long been proven to be their ancestral domain, based on numerous historical documents including the legal doctrine of Native Title.

 

Most, if not all, provinces in the Cordillera already have designated IPMRs in their respective local legislative bodies. 

 

Baguio City is commemorating its 107th year anniversary as a chartered city on September 1.

 

Carino also said that they are calling the NCIP to support the selection of the IPMR for Baguio City through a process determined by the Ibaloi and to certify that the chosen representative is the duly selected IPMR for Baguio City.

 

The City Council, she added, should also pass a resolution supporting this selection process as determined by Ibalois and to pass a city ordinance appropriating the necessary funds for the IPMR to sit in the council.

 

The Cordillera Elders Workshop for Regional Autonomy attended by 162 participants from the different provinces of the Cordilera, was a collaboration by the non-government Cordillera Peoples Alliance, National Economic and Development Authority-CAR, University of the Philippines Baguio and the Cordillera Administrative Region Association of State Universities and Colleges.