BAGUIO CITY – President Rodrigo Duterte recently endorsed the candidacy of the IPEACE Epanaw Party-list group as one of the aspiring party-list organizations that should be voted upon by the electorate to occupy the available seats in the House of Representatives in the upcoming May 9, 2022 synchronized national and local elections.
“I express my full support to Attorney Marlon Bosantog, the second nominee of Epanaw Partylist. It is my hope that the people will allow him to bring about genuine change for the good of our country. Good luck Mr. Marlon and I wish you all the best,” President Duterte stated in one of his speaking engagements.
The IPEACE Epanaw Party-list is listed as No. 171 in the order of party-list organizations that had been allowed by the Commission on election (COMELEC) to run and contest the available seats in the House of Representatives during the upcoming May polls.
For his part, Bosantog said that he was humbled by the President’s endorsement, especially that the Chief Executive personally mentioned his name in one of his public appearances which is a rare incident that can transpire in such important occasion.
He claimed that the President’s endorsement will serve as a motivation for the IPEACE Epanaw Party-list to elevate its campaign to a higher level to be able to earn the votes of the electorate to allow the nominees to occupy the prescribed seats in the House for them to be able to advance the cause of the indigenous peoples (IPs) in the country so that their rights will not just be trampled upon.
The party-list group aims to unite the indigenous peoples in Mindanao as a vehicle for social, political and cultural transformation towards the attainment of its goals and aspirations as provided under existing laws.
Further, it also envisions strengthening a unified and consolidated indigenous peoples voice in Mindanao that will ascertain the significance and participation in nation building through partnership with other stakeholders in the development and protection of the ancestral domains.
The group envisions an empowered indigenous people in Mindanao, recognizing its tri-people character, secured in their indigenous people’s rights as prescribed by their culture, by the law and international policy of human security, collectively developing and preserving their ancestral domain in communities to attain peace and development and participate in nation building.
Bosantog was a former State Solicitor in the Office of the Solicitor-General before being appointed as the regional director of the Cordillera office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP-CAR) where he was able to mandate multinational companies operating in the region to conduct the required free and prior informed consent (FPIC) process with the indigenous peoples and indigenous cultural communities hosting their operations so that IPs will be able to benefit from such operations.
Bosantog also served as one of the spokespersons of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) which embarked on a whole of the nation approach to gain headway in the campaign against the communist terrorists in the country.