Bosantog, NCIP exec declared persona non-grata by Kabuago IPs

Top officials of the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples – Cordillera were declared persona non grata by Isnag leaders and elders from Kabugao, Apayao within their ancestral domain.
In Community Resolution No. 2, series of 2021 signed last October 23, some 104 Isnag elders and leaders from the former Apayao capital declared NCIP director Marlon Bosantog and Free and Prior Informed Consent leader Atanacio Addog, both lawyers, as not welcome within their lands.
The leaders and elders also included in the declaration the Pan Pacific Renewable Power Philippines Corporation (PPRPPC).
PPRPPC is the proponent of the 150 megawatt Gened 1 Mega Dam that said Isnag leaders and elders fear could inundate and submerge a large part of the municipality.
In the said declaration, which also urged the municipal government of Kabugao to pass a similar one, alleged that despite rejection of the project during the FPIC meeting conducted by the agency with the locals in 2017, said national agency came out with a memorandum of agreement between the said Indigenous People and the project proponent.
The elders alleged that both NCIP officials “forged Community Resolutions, unlawfully made to reflect authorization were given by the Kabuga AD (ancestral domain) holders to the hand-picked IPs as documents giving authorization to the hand-picked IPS to negotiate, sign the MOA and consent on our behalf of the Kabugao AD holders.”
The two, the elders alleged, “lawyered before the NCIP Commission en Banc the legitimacy of the forged Community Resolutions,…”
Bosantog and Addog, the IP leaders said, insisted that “the FPIC process was religiously followed,..” They alleged further that the signatures were forged.
This, they said, could lead to the issuance of a Certification Precondition allowing PPRPPC to proceed with the dam.
The IP leaders said that they would rather allow the river to flow as it is that will serve also as a legacy for the next generation.
Copies of the resolution were forwarded to the NCIP – main office and other offices of said agency as well as the local governents of Kabugao and Apayao province as well the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Human Rights.
In Baguio and Benguet, the Sangguniang Panlungsod and Panlalawigan filed several resolutions declaring National Electrification Authority supervisor Omar Mayo as not welcome in both localities due to the on-going Benguet Electric Cooperative row.
Pigeon Lobien/ABN

Amianan Balita Ngayon