BAGUIO CITY – The RDC Committee on Indigenous Peoples’ Concerns held its final meeting of the year to review its accomplishments and plans ahead for 2021. Newly assigned Acting NCIP Regional Director for the Cordillera Atty. Marlon P. Bosantog presided over the meeting where he was warmly welcomed by the Committee.
The results of the webinar series on IP Rights, Innovation in Culture and Arts and Autonomy which tackled relevant issues confronting the IP sector such as cultural misrepresentation and appropriation, cultural innovation and preservation, and the role of policies and agencies in the development of culture was highlighted.
The Committee recognized the webinar as its top accomplishment for the year as said event heightened awareness and improved quality of discussions on said issues with the insights of resource persons who are experts, practitioners and advocates coming from a multi-disciplinary fields with practical experience.
Likewise, it improved the range of stakeholders which engaged more than 9,000 participants and viewers not just in the Cordillera but in the country and the world with the use of virtual platforms that would not be possible in a pre-pandemic conditions.
The Committee aims to continuously explore a more focused and deeper issues affecting IP rights in the region with an increased participation from all sectors at all levels especially from the grassroots through the replication of the webinar series in 2021.
Further, the committee aims to further engage in facilitating problems arising from projects affecting indigenous cultural communities/ICCs which is similar to its involvement in addressing the Chico Pump Irrigation Project that affected the ICCs of Kalinga in 2019. Related to this, the Committee supports the initiative of NCIP Director Bosantog to coordinate with DPWH in addressing the proposed demolition of the memorial of Macli-ing Dulag that was constructed along the national road in Bugnay, Tinglayan, Kalinga.
Atty. Bosantog is joined by Private Sector Representative for Indigenous Peoples Ryan Mangusan as Co-Chair together with government and CSOs and the NEDA and NCIP serving as the Committee Secretariat in a joint face-to-face and video teleconference meeting. The CIPC is one of six sectoral committees of the RDC-CAR. The Cordillera RDC is the only RDC with a sectoral committee for IP development. It serves as a major platform for cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary engagement for concerns and challenges confronting the ICCs/IPs in the region.
By NEDA-CAR