Recommendations in IP Rights country report

ACOUNTRY report on our adherence to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was prepared and presented by a contingent of Philippine IP organizations, namely the KASAPI (Koalisyon ng mga Katutubong Samahan sa Pilipinas), KAMP (Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan sa Pilipinas), CPA (Cordillera Peoples Alliance) and KALUMARAN in Thailand a few weeks ago. Although there were good practices reflected in the report, it also came up with recommendations to address the serious issues affecting indigenous peoples (IP) and their communities throughout the country.

Foremost is a call on the Aquino government to stop the killings of IPs and withdraw Oplan Bayanihan which victimizes innocent and unarmed civilians. The provisions of UNDRIP, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other international human rights standards to which the Philippines is a signatory should be strictly implemented. The government should stop militarization of indigenous communities, pull out military and paramilitary troops from indigenous communities and prosecute paramilitary groups and private armies for their human rights violations and dismantle them.

The government should exercise strong political will to arrest, prosecute and punish all perpetrators of human rights violations particularly against the 168 IP victims of extrajudicial killings under the Arroyo administration. An independent and transparent investigation of the 30 IP victims of extrajudicial killings under the Aquino government must immediately commence. There is a need to push for official visits of the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, on Extra-Judicial Killings, and on Internally Displaced Persons to investigate the continuing widespread human rights violations and to make recommendations to the Philippine government towards ending impunity and improving the human rights situation in the country.

Formal peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines should resume to address the roots of the armed conflict, implement agreements forged by both parties and ensure that collective rights of IPs are included in the second substantive agenda on social and economic rights. In the GPH-MILF continuing peace talks and forging of agreements, the IPs of Mindanao have to be given meaningful and sufficient participation to ensure that their collective rights are respected.

As a signatory to UNDRIP, the Philippine government should review and repeal all laws and policies inconsistent with the UNDRIP like the Regalian Doctrine that has been instrumental in the violation of IP rights to land and self determination since colonial times until the present. Thus, the Cariño Doctrine of Native Title in recognition of IP rights to lands and resources in accordance with customary laws and concepts of land ownership and native title should be upheld.

The Philippine Mining Act of 1995 should be repealed and EO 79 withdrawn and alternative and peoples’ mining bills be legislated. A moratorium of all mining applications should be in place and mining contracts and agreements with fraudulent Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) be revoked.

All destructive “development projects” in indigenous territories should be stopped and all permits of large-scale mining, hydroelectric plants, plantations, and commercial logging without the genuine FPIC of indigenous communities should be cancelled. The government should maintain the recommendations of IPs in strengthening the implementation and respect of FPIC in their guidelines. A total revamp of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) is needed to ensure that it really serves its mandate for the protection of IP rights and not the interests of corporations and powerful entities. Strong mechanisms of accountability must be put into place to guard against corrupt NCIP officers and personnel. Measures for redress should be implemented to rectify the NCIP’s history of corruption and violation of indigenous peoples interests.

Government should significantly improve the delivery of basic social services, poverty eradication and sustainable livelihood, towards genuine self-determined development and progress in indigenous territories. Support from appropriate international bodies and funding institutions should be sought to ensure that aid for IPs, as one of the most vulnerable to climate change, really reaches and benefits them. Finally IP organizations should be empowered and their movements further strengthened to assert their collective rights to their ancestral lands, resources and territories and self-determination.