For allegedly failing to protect Lumads, NCIP gets P1,000 budget from House

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved only a P1,000 budget for the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for the year 2018.

During the plenary consideration of the agency's P1.18 billion proposed budget for next year, Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate moved to give the NCIP only a P1,000 budget.

Zarate argued that the agency has not been performing its mandate to protect the rights of members of the national minority.

Among the incidents that Zarate said the NCIP failed to address are the killing of three Lumad leaders in Surigao del Sur in 2015, the continuous red-tagging of Lumad schools, and issues of ancestral domain.

"Nagiging bulag, pipi at bingi ang NCIP sa daing ng mga katutubo. Sa halip, naging kasangkapan pa ito upang linlangin at lalong labagin ang karapatan ng mga katutubo," he said.

"Kaya, Ginoong Speaker, kami po sa Makabayan bloc ay nagsusulong na kung hindi natin mabuwag ang NCIP sa kasalukuyan ay sa budget sa susunod na taon ay bigyan lamang ito ng P1,000 upang ang Kongresong ito ay magbigay ng seryosong mensahe na kailangang tugunan ng NCIP ang mga pangyayaring hinaharap ng katutubo," he added.

Buhay party-list Representative Lito Atienza had opposed Zarate's motion, thinking that the plenary was discussing the budget of the Commission on Human Rights.

Atienza was later informed that Zarate's motion for the budget of the NCIP, prompting him to withdraw his opposition.

Being no other member of the House who opposed, Zarate's motion to give only P1,000 budget for the NCIP was accepted.

The NCIP is the second government agency to receive P1,000 budget for 2018 from the House of Representatives, after the Energy Regulatory Commission. —KBK, GMA News