IP group calls for BARMM extn to realize institutional reform

 Indigenous peoples join the rally supporting the passage of bills extending the Bangsamoro transition period. (File photo from Mindanao) 

COTABATO CITY – Indigenous peoples (IP) group in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) issued a signed manifesto on Monday, July 26, declaring their “unequivocal support” for pending Congress bills extending the transition period.

“If the transition period will not be extended, the Indigenous Peoples fear that the desired institutional reforms, particularly the protection and preservation of the Fusaka Inged (ancestral lands) and the entrenchment of the Tribal Justice System will be relegated and forgotten like what previously happened in the defunct ARMM,” the manifesto reads 

Received by the Senate on Wednesday, July 28, the manifesto was signed by Tribal Chieftains Phoebe Grace Villamor of the Higaonon Tribe and Timuay Felino Samar of the Teduray Tribe. Other signatories also include IP women Representatives Jocelyn Palao and Bae Magdalena Suhat of the North Cotabato Council of Elders.

“Based on the manifesto, if the extension bills will not be passed, we fear that the Indigenous Peoples Code will be disregarded,” Samar said during an online media forum held by the Mindanao Peoples Caucus on Thursday, July 29.

Article XVI, Section 4 of Republic Act 11054 or the Bangsamoro Organic Law, mandates the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) to enact seven priority codes including the Indigenous Peoples Code, which aims to promote IP rights and welfare, and protect and recognize their historical rights to their native lands.

The manifesto also states that “the process of IP Code drafting, consultations and consensus-building among the various tribes is still ongoing at various levels…These legal and cultural processes are hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which limit the movement of peoples within and among the various communities, thus, causing delay in the enactment of the IP Code.”

“We will not falter in forwarding the advocacies and concerns of the IPs in BARMM because we feel that the current regional government is supportive of the realization of our collective aspirations and desired reforms,” Palao said.

The said IP leaders also commended the BARMM for designating two IP representatives in the BTA, and for significantly increasing the annual budget of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs, as well as the approval of the Education Code that enjoined the establishment of a tribal university.

“This only shows the high level of respect afforded to the right to self-determination of the Indigenous Peoples within the autonomous region,” they stated in the manifesto. (BANGSAMORO INFORMATION OFFICE, MINDANAO EXPOSE’)