Pagadian City IPs hopes DILG action against City Council on IPMR issue

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http://pagadianfrontline.blogspot.com/2014/05/subanen-tribesmen-protest-removal-of.html

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By JONG CADION

Timuay Langhap Rio

Olimpio Lingating

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur (May 29, MPF-News) – The Indigenous Peoples in Pagadian City were showing hope and justice will be given to them by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) favorable action on the Indigenous Mandatory Representation (IPMR) issue against the City Council of Pagadian.

Subanen Tribal leader Timuay Langhap Rio Olimpio Lingating said in an exclusive interview Sunday the action done by the 11^th City Council of exclusion his position as IPMR in the City Council of Pagadian is a clear and simple discrimination and injustice against the IPs.

Lingating said the Subanen Tribes still in high hopes that justice will be given to them through the favorable action by DILG Undersecretary for Local Government Austere A. Panadero action against the 11^th City Council decision unfounded and has no legal basis.

Lingating also said that the Pagadian City Council statement through Vice Mayor Divina Grace Yu letter to the DILG Regional Director Paisal O. Abutazil and to the DILG National dated March 26, 2014 as a reply explain relative to his exclusion as IPMR cited four reasons are clearly misplaced. 

Among the reasons for exclusion stated as a reply to the request of DILG were the following:

1. That the 10^th and 11^th  City Council failed to legislate a law creating the Office of the IP representative as Ex-Officio member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of the City of Pagadian including the budgetary allocation for the salary of the IPMR and the personnel and for the operation of the said office;

2. Has not gone through a proper decorum and was not referred to the concerned committee for proper deliberation and evaluation;

3. The endorsement as IP representative was not proper due to the absence of supporting documents prior to the issuance of the NCIP Certificate of Affirmation;

4. With the insistent objection of the members of the 11^th City Council, during its second regular session the motion to recognize anew as member of the City Council was declared defeated by a majority vote.

Obviously, the reasons cited by the SP of Pagadian in excluding the undersigned had already long been settled and is not in any way be a valid basis for my exclusion following Section 16 of Republic Act No. 8371 created by itself the seat for IPMRs when it mandated the mandatory representation of IPs in local legislative bodies, the Subanen Tribal Leader said.

He said pursuant to the said law, the City Council should have amended their Rules of Procedure to accommodate what is required by the National Law, the IPRA, not to illegally exclude me instead that resulted to undue injury to me and the subanen community of Pagadian City.

He added that Local legislation creating the Office of IP Representative as Ex-Officio member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod is not necessary as it (IP Representative seat) is already created by the National legislation.

It is absurd, if not sweeping statement, to question the procedure on how I was recognized by the 10^th City Council considering that some of the members of the said Council are also members of the present 11^th City Council. The DILG had already issued to me a Certificate of Recognition, he explained.

“When I was issued with the Certificate of Affirmation by the NCIP Regional Office and subsequently with the Certificate of Recognition by the DILG carries with it the presumption that I had gone through the required process and had complied with the requirements as provided under the IPRA and it Implementing Rules and Regulation; Questions and issues regarding my representation should be settled before the proper forum and proper procedure and by the real party in interest, he said.

Clearly, my exclusion from the City Council is predicated by political vendetta as I am branded as Liberal Party supporter, he also said.

To this, Lingating desires earnestly to follow up the final verdict to the office of DIG undersecretary Panadero in his letter Friday May 23 as to the merit of his request for intercession against the action of the City Council of Pagadian with the high hopes that justice will prevail for the IPs.