“The snake, no matter how it changes its skin, is still a snake.”
CAGAYAN DE ORO — Nancy Catamco, the first Lumad governor of Cotabato, recently became chairperson of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
She also took an oath as the new member of the executive committee of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), a government agency that has been criticized for red-tagging activists and advocates, including Indigenous leaders.
Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Katribu), a national alliance of various IP organizations, was not surprised by her membership since the NCIP, a government institution established following the passage of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act in 1997, has been part of key agencies since the establishment of the task force under the Duterte administration in 2018.
However, for the group, Catamco—who belongs to the Bagobo-Manobo ethnic group—and these institutions do not represent the Indigenous communities. “The snake, no matter how it changes its skin, is still a snake,” Beverly Longid, Katribu national convener, said in Filipino.
Catamco served as North Cotabato Second District representative from 2010 to 2019 and the province’s governor from 2019 to 2022. Prior to her new appointment, she also served as NCIP’s Ethnographic Commissioner for Central Mindanao.
Katribu recalled how the late Bae Bibiyaon Ligkayan Bigkay, the woman chieftain of the Manobo tribe in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, strongly reprimanded Catamco who was a congresswoman at the time during the latter’s attempt to release the hundreds of Lumad (collective name of non-Moro IPs in Mindanao) who took refuge in the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Haran, Davao City, in 2015 due to militarization in their respective communities.
The Manobo chieftain’s outrage was pointed to Catamco’s move in bringing state forces to the UCCP Haran for a dialogue.
Read:Solon slammed for ‘arrogance’ in talks with Lumad ‘bakwets’
Because of her alleged derogatory statement calling the Lumad children “stinky,” IP leaders declared Catamco persona non grata and called for her removal as the chair of the House Committee on Indigenous Cultural Communities and Indigenous Peoples.
A 2019 Commission on Human Rights (CHR) report noted that the UCCP compound in Haran was not a conducive place for the Lumad‘s evacuation. However, Lumad leaders at the time refused to return if there were military and paramilitary troops in their communities.
Catamco also opposed calls to abolish the NTF-ELCAC which is contrary to the demands of several IP organizations.
Katribu remains firm with its stance, which is to abolish the NCIP and repeal the IPRA law. For them, the agency has failed to fulfill its mandate to protect Indigenous rights following various alleged irregularities, as well as the red-tagging.
Read:Indigenous folk say bill reforming IPRA to fast track corporate access to lands
In 2021, the NCIP, through an en banc resolution, linked the Lumad schools to the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army.
Over 200 of these Indigenous schools were shut down under the Duterte administration, according to the Save Our Schools Network, depriving thousands of Lumad children of education.
Moreover, Katribu is one of the organizations that has been pushing for the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC due to persistent red-tagging, a recommendation also made by Irene Khan, United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, during her presentation to the UN Human Rights Council last year.
“[I]f Catamco herself claims to be a Lumad but brings harm to her kin, graver violations of IP rights should be expected under her NCIP leadership and role in the NTF-ELCAC,” Katribu said in a statement. (DAA)
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