DEAR Mr. President:

I do not know whose idea it was to transfer the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to the Office of the President (OP), but I think that it was a very good decision on your part.

Firstly, placing the NCIP under the DSWD implies that it is a “charity case”, which obviously it is not.

Secondly, the NCIP did not have the “bureaucratic clout” when it was simply “attached” to a line department, unlike now that it is directly “under” the OP.

As I see it, the NCIP should really transform into a “development” agency, from what it was before, when it was generally regarded as a “welfare” agency. I am sure Sir, that you have already been briefed about the problems besetting the NCIP but allow me to bring out some of these two you.

I am sorry if I could not present to you any actual proof of these problems that I will bring to you, but I am sure that you could validate these through your own sources.

The first problem Sir is that many of the Indigenous Tribal Peoples (ITPs) still have not acquired their Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs), after all those years since the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) law was passed in 1997.

As far as I know, the problem could be the lack of money, or the lack of lawyers. However, that is not even supposed to happen, because the NCIP is supposed to have the money and the personnel for that purpose.

The second problem Sir is that some local government units (LGUs) are not recognizing the Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMRs) who are supposed to represent the local tribes in the local municipal councils, city councils and provincial boards.

As it is supposed to be, the tribes are supposed to select their own IPMRs, but in many cases, the local mayors and governors would insist on making their own choices, thus defeating the purpose of democratic representation.

The third problem Sir is that many of the tribal communities are so far away from the urban areas, such that they are often deprived of access to basic services such as health and education. It would be good if the government could bring these services closer to where they are, but that is not always the case.

There is also supposed to be an Indigenous People’s Education (IPED) program that aims to provide culturally responsive education to the ITPs, but the implementation seems to be behind its targets.

The fourth problem Sir is the lack of support not only from the NCIP itself, but also from other National Government Agencies (NGAs), for purposes of supporting the livelihoods of these ITPs.

Among others, this support should come in the form of training, financing and marketing. Since many of these ITPs have large tracks of lands, they could prospectively go into large- scale plantations, or even large-scale poultry and livestock production.

Now that the NCIP is directly under your office, I believe that it would be very easy for you to mobilize all the NGAs that are needed to provide support to all the tribal communities, regardless of whether they already have CADTS or not.

These NGAs could include the Department of Justice (DOJ) for legal support in applying for the CADTs, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to identify the technologies that they need, the Department of Agriculture (DA) to provide them with the training, supplies and equipment, Department of Finance (DOF) for financing and Department of Trade and Industry for marketing.