THE regional office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP 11) vowed to expedite the comprehensive report coming from the Davao City NCIP provincial office on the genealogy of newly-appointed Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR) so that a certificate of affirmation can be issued.
Lawyer Ariel Montana, NCIP 11, said Wednesday, May 30, that NCIP 11 regional director Geroncio Aguio had already sent a reply to Davao City Vice Mayor Bernard Al-ag who earlier expressed his concern over the long-delayed issuance of the Certificate of Affirmation to IPMR Cherry Ann Codilla.
The regional director stated that there was no objection on the part of NCIP 11 relative to the issuance of COA. There were only clarifications on the tribal lineage because of the conflicting documents that she submitted before and her latest documents.
Montana explained that based on the national guidelines of NCIP administrative order 001, series of 2009 also known as the National Guidelines for the Mandatory Representation of Indigenous Peoples in Local Legislative Councils, on the section 15, it provides Duties of the Provincial Office/ Community Service Center.
The community service center were tasked to assist in the full documentation of the selection proceedings; certify that the records and all documents emanating from the proceedings are valid and genuine; and endorse to the regional office the selected representative together with the duly certified documents of the proceedings.
On the other hand, the duties of the regional office now are to evaluate the documents and results of the proceedings. If found meritorious, it shall issue a Certificate of Affirmation (COA) to the selected representative otherwise, the report shall be returned to the recommending NCIP filed office with specific instruction for compliance.
"At the moment, there was an initial report from the Davao City Provincial Office asking for extension of time to come up with a substantive and comprehensive report in so far as the qualification of Cherry Ann Codilla," Montana said.
He added, "I was told that this report will be submitted in the regional office as soon as possible if not today within this week. Not alter than next week."
This delay had caused eight straight council sessions with no IP and Muslim representative.
Aguio, in his letter sent to the office of the office of the vice mayor, clarified that there was no objection on their part but merely adhering to the law and the local policy of the tribe.
"Verily, such action is not an objection but it is within the bounds of the national guidelines that this office is currently doing to come up with a comprehensive and substantive report in connection with the selection of Mrs. Codilla," Aguio said.
Based in the local guidelines of the Bagobo-Klata tribe, it sets the minimum qualification which provides that he or she must have at least 25 percent Bagobo-Klata by blood or consanguinity to determine his/hereligibility a genealogical form should be presented prior to his or her selection to determine elegibility.
The genealogical data provided by Codilla before for the Certificate of Confirmation that she is a member of the tribe and the documents that she submitted after the selection as IPMR did not match with the official record of NCIP particularly on her grandparents as well as the clan of Pandian and Buisan.
They sought clarification as the two names did not appear in the Bagobo-Klata master list of the CADT claim book, however, the name Padian appears in the Bagobo-Tagabawa CADT master list while name Buisan appears in the Ubo-Manuvo CADT master list.
"To say that this office has an untimely objection on her qualifications after three validations is misleading as there was no validation yet on her genealogy. The proof of a validation by this office is a validation order and a validation report none of which are in our records. What is being done now is a process provided by our national guidelines and not an objection," Aguio added.
The primary task of IMR is to legislate laws for their betterment of the tribe.
Meanwhile, the NCIP assured that they will fast track the final result of the comprehensive report as to not deprive the IP representation in the local legislative council.
