THE National Commission on Indigenous People Davao regional office (NCIP 11) has directed its office in Davao City to create a timeline for the selection process for the next Indigenous People Mandatory Representative (IPMR) at the City Council with an improved selection procedure.
NCIP 11 director lawyer Geroncio P. Aguio, in an interview with Sun.Star Davao Friday, July 13, said he already sent a letter to the Davao City office.
"They are the ones who will submit the time plan to ensure that what happened will not be repeated. We will just wait for their reply on the schedule," he said.
Aguio said that most likely, the next selection will be in September.
Based on 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 blood or consanguinity to determine his/her eligibility. A genealogical form should be presented prior to his or her selection to determine eligibility.
However, the genealogical data provided by IPMR Cherry Ann 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.
Aguio said upon further verification of the two names, it turned out that it did not appear in the Bagobo-Klata master list of the CADT claim book, but the name Padian appears in the Bagobo-Tagabawa CADT master list while name Buisan appears in the Ubo-Manuvo CADT master list.
"Her issue is disqualification. She didn't reach the blood required by the local guidelines. If you are are not qualified, we cannot issue certificate of affirmation," he said.
He said that Codillo has 6.25 percent Klata blood, 6.25 Tagabawa and 12.5 Ovu Manubo, and 75 percent non-IP.
On the next selection process, to avoid similar controversy, aspirants must submit their Certificate of Confirmation (COC) or tribal membership to determine whether they qualified the genealogical mandatory requirement before selection.
Since April, there was no IPMR in the city council and it was requested that one of the deputy mayors will take over. Also, former IPMR Bai Halila Sudagar requested if she could hold over the post while there is no IMPR yet but the approval of the deputy mayors is needed.
