MARCH 16, 2015

NR # 3772

Creation of resource centers in Indigenous Cultural Communities pushed

A lawmaker has sought the establishment of a resource center in every indigenous
cultural community in the country to enhance the delivery of basic, social, technical and
legal services to the indigenous peoples.
Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat, Jr. (Lone District, Ifugao) said the resource centers,
which shall be created under House Bill 5359, would serve as access centers to boost
current government efforts in improving the lives of the indigenous peoples.
Decades after the passage of Republic Act 8371, otherwise known as the
Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), and despite several engagement on the part of the
government and civil society, Indigenous Peoples remain on the fringes of Philippine
society, Baguilat said.
Baguilat cited geographic isolation as one reason why indigenous peoples have a
hard time receiving the necessary basic services provided by government.
And because of their control and possession of ancestral domain which are rich of
resources, Indigenous Peoples become targets of human right abuses, Baguilat said.
The measure, to be known as the Resource Centers for Indigenous Peoples Act of
2015, shall set up resource centers in all ethnographic regions to serve as access centers
to the delivery of governments basic services.
Under the measure, each established ICCs/IPs Resource Center in strategic places
as determined by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) shall have a
Chief Coordinating Officer and staff members assigned from government departments,
agencies and local government concerned.
The center shall have a Statistical Service Area, which will document and recognize
the ICCs/IPs knowledge, systems and practices, political structures and customary laws
through census, appraisal and baseline reports and libraries.
Human Development Index Service Area is another part of the center, which shall
address problems of ICCs/IPs and provide basic and necessary services through link-up
with concerned government department and agencies, like training programs, grant of
scholarships, employment, livelihood and enterprises, and health services.
Another major service area is the Domain Management Service Area which
promotes participatory programs, projects and activities for ICCs/IPs to effectively deliver
the responsibility of maintaining ecological balance, restore denuded areas, observe laws,

and ensure the implementation of the Ancestral domains Sustainable Development and
Protections Plans and other related existing programs.
The NCIP shall submit to Congress every three years or as determined in the
implementing rules and regulations an annual report of its accomplishments.
The NCIP shall issue the necessary Rules and Regulations for the effective
implementation of the proposed Act. It shall be done in coordination with the concernment
government agencies such as Local Government Units (LGUs), Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Technical
Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Education
(DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Commission on Human Rights
(CHR), Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE),
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Health (DOH), Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agriculture (DA), Land
Management Bureau (LMB), Land Registration Authority (LRA), and other concerned
agencies. (30) jc