BALBALAN, Kalinga (PIA) - -The Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representatives (IPMR) from Tabuk City and  all municipalities  as well as  barangays of host  the  municipality participated in the IPMR Assembly 2023 on  August 11 at the Balbalan Sports Center.

Organized by the Office of  Kalinga IPMR and National Commission on  Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) – Kalinga, the activity  aimed to educate IPMRs on the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act or the IPRA law.

Provincial NCIP Director Atty. Catherine Gayagay-Apaling  discussed the salient features of Republic Act 8371  particularly the provisions of ancestral domain and ancestral lands, indigenous people’s rights and welfare over their ancestral domains and ancestral lands in the context of their being citizens of the Philippines.
 
Apaling explained that explicit in the IPRA law is the power of IPs  and indigenous communities to decide what they want to become of their ancestral domains/ancestral lands in the utilization and preservation of resources found therein, and the choice of direction of development they want to be done over those areas in consideration of the practice of their distinct customs and traditions as they move forward to the dynamism of change.
 

As stipulated  in the IPRA Law, the concept of ownership of ancestral domains and ancestral lands by the IPs/ indigenous cultural communities  holds that  these are  community  properties by each particular IP/ICC which belongs to all generations.  “These  are not alienable to be transferred to new ownership, either by sale to or occupation by other outside entities, other than by themselves,”  Apaling stressed.
 
She said these ancestral domains/ancestral lands shall remain a collective possession by the indigenous peoples by the passing of time as the physical expression of their distinct identity in the practice of their time-honored customs and traditions.
 
Governor James Edduba, Placido Alsiyang Jr. representing Congressman Allen Jesse Mangaoang, Atty. Winifredo Agapito representing Vice Gov. Jocel Baac, Provincial IPMR Michael Karel Suguiyao, Balbalan  Mayor Almar Malannag and Vice Mayor Rowina Damian  were also present in the event. (JDP/PIA- CAR, Kalinga)