Deputy Speaker and Antique lone District Rep. Loren Legarda has sought the establishment of Resource Centers for Indigenous Peoples (IPs) to enhance and ensure delivery of essential services to the country’s marginalized sector.
(FACEBOOK / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
She filed House Bill No. 7806 or the proposed Resource Centers for Indigenous Peoples Act to provide IPs equal access to basic services and ensure protection of their rights, taking into consideration their customs, traditions, values, and beliefs.
“There is a need to set up Resource Centers in all ethnographic regions to enhance the delivery of government’s basic services and enable them to be recognized, to freely engage in participatory development programs, projects, and activities,” she said in filing HB No. 7806.
The House leader said under her proposal, the IPs Resource Centers shall be established in state universities and colleges (SUCs), in strategic locations, as determined by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
Legarda said the centers shall serve as access centers to enhance delivery of basic, social , technical, and cultural services.
“Republic Act 8371, otherwise known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), was enacted into law in 1997 to give effect to the constitutional recognition and cognisance to the indigenous peoples in our country,” she noted.
“Despite concerted efforts, our indigenous peoples still remain marginalized. Further, the reported serious human rights violations, displacement from ancestral domain and destruction of their natural environment and values, calls for an immediate measure to address the same,” she stressed.
Under HB 7806, the Center shall be composed of the following major service areas: Statistical Service Area, Human Development Index Service Area, and Domains Management Service Area.
The measure provides that the initial funding requirements for the implementation of the proposed Act shall be charged against the current appropriations of the concerned state universities and colleges. Thereafter, such sums as may be necessary for its continued implementation shall be included in the SUCs' yearly budget under the General Appropriations Act (GAA).
The NCIP, together with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) shall issue the implementing rules and regulations of the proposed Act within 90 days after its approval.