BAUKO, Mountain Province – The IPEACE Epanaw Party-list group assured indigenous peoples (IPs) that it will sustain its ongoing advocacy in ensuring that their right to their ancestral domain will not be trampled upon by multi-national companies intending to develop and utilize resources within such domains.
Lawyer Marlon Bosantog, the party-list group’s second nominee, pointed out that the rights of IPs over their ancestral domain does not only mean economic benefits but allows them to exercise their right to free and prior informed consent (FPIC) prior to negotiations for benefits for the development and utilization of the resources therein, thus, there is the need for the IPs to be continuously empowered to assert for the conduct of the required FPIC process for any development that will be undertaken by private proponents and government agencies within their domains.
He pointed out that the law is applicable not only in the Cordillera but also in IP communities in the different parts of the country so that IPs can enjoy the benefits of having preserved and protected their domains.
Bosantog, who hails from Bauko, Mountain Province and Buguias, Benguet, was instrumental in the conduct of the FPIC process in Bakun, Benguet between the Aboitiz-owned HEDCOR, Inc. and the Bakun Indigenous Tribe Organization (BITO) that paved the way to the forging of a Memorandum Of Agreement where the IPs will be enjoying the maximum benefit from the operation of the 14-megawatt hydroelectric plants operating in the said municipality.
Further, the former regional director of the Cordillera office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP-CAR) was also able to mandate the conduct of the FPIC process between SN Aboitiz Power–Benguet and the Shakilan ni Eculos of Bokod and the Tinongdan Indigenous Peoples Organization (TINPO) in Tinongdan, Itogon, Benguet for the operation of the 105-megawatt Ambuclao dam and the 126-megawatt Binga dam where negotiations are still underway.
The IPEACE Epanaw is listed as No. 171 in the order of the party-list groups which were allowed by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to vie for the available seats in the House of Representatives during the upcoming May 9, 2022 synchronized national and local elections.
According to him, the success of the negotiations between HEDCOR and the Bakun IPs is now serving as a template of the benefits that should be derived by the IPs from the development and utilization by multinational companies resources within their ancestral domains to help in the realization of countryside development where economic activities are expected to flourish in rural communities and discourage the migration of people to the urban centers.
Bosantog is a product of the public education system before completing his baccalaureate and post-graduate degrees at the St. Louis University in Baguio City. He was previously employed at the Office of the Solicitor-General before being appointed as the NCIP-CAR regional director where he was able to institute the appropriate reforms that paved the way for IPs to exercise their right over development projects being proposed and undertaken within their ancestral domains.