DECADE-OLD IPO CONFLICT RESOLVED
TUBA, Benguet: The 10-year conflict among the seven factions of the Indigenous Peoples organization (IPO) of Alapang, Pukis, Sta. Fe, Oliba and Luacan (IPO-Apsol) was finally resolved after the contending families and clans decided to unite as legitimate partners and investors in the utilization of the resources within their ancestral domain.
“We have to give credit to the members of each of the factions of the organization for getting their [act] together and put to work the conditions of their agreement with the mining company for the benefit of present and future generations of their people in their communities,” said Commissioner Gaspar Cayat of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
Commissioner Cayat noted that it took more than a year for him to painstakingly mediate among members of each of the factions to inculcate in them the need to unite for their communities to avail of benefits under their 25-year memorandum of agreement with Philex Mining Corp. as this had been stalled for at least 10 years.
He pointed out that Apsol, or aphol in the Kalanguya, dialect means unity and the IPO that will be revived will not merely focus on the acronym of the six sitio (sub-villages), but will also be an IPO for peace, unity and development.
The NCIP official claimed that, based on the structure of organizations agreed upon by the contending factions, there will be a council of elders as the highest decision-making body of the group with 12 standing committees under it aside from executive officers. This is pursuant to the indigenous political structure for proper checks and balances and is in contrast to the previous setup, where the executive officers were also the policy- and decision-makers.
In 2008, IPO-Apsol entered into an agreement with Philex Mining Corp., giving its consent for the company to conduct mining operations within its ancestral domain in exchange for a 1.25-percent royalty annually to be deposited by the company in the official account of the group. It was agreed that the disbursement shall be pursuant to standing rules and regulations and that the projects will translate to the benefit of the communities.
But the conflict-marred organization was eventually delisted from the accredited associations of the NCIP after its certificate of registration was canceled.
Cayat stated that the en banc NCIP approved in principle last week the intention of the unified organization to reapply. Thus, it was granted the reinstatement application, pending the submission of the documentary requirements.