Group formed to assert IP rights in development projects
BAGUIO CITY — Indigenous activists and policymakers on Thursday formally launched and organized a group to monitor and assert the right to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) for ancestral land and ancestral domain holders across the Philippines amid encroaching developers and government projects.
The FPIC Watch will also draft alternative mechanisms for government protection of indigenous rights, given recent changes to its. application that the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples had issued to relax the process and ease the certification of projects, said Joan Carling, executive director of Indigenous Rights Act International.
The global transition to green energy has affected ancestral lands due to the growing demand for rare minerals for the construction of technological infrastructure for new energy, she said. Before these projects land on their doorsteps, IP communities must be prepared with a stronger accountability system when their FPIC is violated, Carling said.
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READ: NCIP defends revised rules on securing IP consent“The Philippines is one of the countries that has a clear policy for FPIC and recognition of ancestral rights. Our laws are strong regarding IP protections,” she pointed out.
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The Watch launch was held in the summer capital where the Native Title Doctrine, a foundation for the constitutional protections granted to indigenous Filipinos, was decreed by the United States Supreme Court in 1909, said Ibaloy human rights lawyer Jose Molintas, a Baguio City Councilor.
The Court had recognized the native rights of Ibaloy leader Mateo Cariño, who sued the colonial government for sequestering his pasture lands, which are now part of Camp John Hay.
Ironically, the law it helped birth – Republic Act No. 8372 (the Indigenous Peoples Act of 1997 or IPRA) – exempts Baguio from its coverage, despite the Doctrine (often referred to as the Cariño Doctrine), Molintas said./coa
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