HELPING INDIGENOUS CULTURAL MINORITIES

HELPING INDIGENOUS CULTURAL MINORITIES The law requires municipalities, cities and provinces to appoint representatives of Indigenous Cultural Minorities (ICMs) to the municipal, city and provincial councils if there are enough of them who are living within their jurisdictions. This is a wonderful provision in the law, but it seems that its implementation is not uniformly or consistently done all over the country. At the outset, I would say that the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) are the agencies that should take the lead in implementing these laws, but it seems difficult to gather compliance data about which jurisdictions are abiding with the laws and which ones are not. Aside from the two NGAs and the three levels of LGUs, I believe that the role of NGOs in the overall implementation should also be recognized, including the many Churches Based Organizations (CBOs) that are helping the ICMs everywhere. Counting everyone, there should be a three-way cooperation in this overall process. Where can we get information about the status of implementation? And how can we find out about the progress of the cooperation? Can any of the NGAs, LGUs and CBOs bring out the information? Ideally, there should be an office for ICM affairs in the LGUs. IKE SENERES/5-25-24