TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Department of Public Works and Highways – Lower Kalinga District Engineering Office (DPWH-LKDEO) recently completed the construction of the P35 million 3story building of the Cordillera office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP-CAR) located at barangay Bulanao Centro.
Subsequently, the aforesaid government structure was inaugurated with the presence of NCIP Chairman Allen Capuyan, Commissioner for Region I and Cordillera Gaspar Cayat, NCIP-CAR regional director Marlon Bosantog, Rep. Allen Jesse Mangaoang, Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representatives (IPMRs) and heads of local governments and various government agencies in the province.
Uyam claimed that the project will eventually provide a 3-story office building for the NCIP-CAR in the city to be able to serve the agency’s clients transacting business with the said office regularly.
The implementation of the project started early last year but was just recently completed by the contractor because of the delays caused by the various levels of community quarantine that had been implemented to help in containing the further rapid spread of the dreaded CoronaVirus Disease (COVID) 2019.
For his part, Director Bosantog expressed his gratitude to the NCIP Commission headed by Chairman Capuyan for his all-out support to the regional office in ensuring the efficient and effective prosecution of their priority programs, projects and activities that included the construction of the structure where the NCIP regional and provincial offices could be accommodated.
He pointed out that the agency will continue to empower indigenous peoples (IPs) to assert their rights over their ancestral domain and not to allow the implementation of development projects that did not pass the required free and prior informed consent so that they will be able to protect their ancestral domain from possible abuses.
Bosantog was able to institute the needed reforms in the agency after being assigned as the regional director late last year where he made sure that all development projects that are operating in the different parts of the region must have undergone the required free and prior informed consent process with the affected indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples to ensure the harmonious relationship between the companies and the host and neighboring communities.
Tabuk city is being groomed by the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera as the future regional center of the region because of the availability of lands that will serve as the areas where additional offices of government agencies could be constructed pursuant to the medium term development plan that had been put in place some 6 years ago.
DPWH-LKDEO has jurisdiction over the major infrastructure projects being implemented in Tabuk city and the towns of Rizal and Pinukpuk where it has been headed by Engr. Uyam since the retirement of the assigned district engineer last year. Uyam has yet to be issued by the agency for her appointment as a permanent district engineer. By HENT
