NCIP conducts base line survey on Agtas in Naga

By Paulo DS. Papa

THE National Commission for Indigenous People (NCIP) in Camarines Sur is conducting a base line survey in the villages of San Isidro and Carolina here to determine the number of indigenous people living in that area including the services or assistance they need.

Agnes Salvino, NCIP provincial head, said that the NCIP is mandated by the government to serve as a facility for indigenous people (IP) in the delivery of basic services aside from working as the government’s arm to ensure that the rights of the indigenous people are protected and upheld.

Aside from San Isidro and Carolina, an organized community of similar ethnic group is also present in Barangay Panicuason’s Zones 5 and 6. There are 32 families of Agta Tabangons in that place which is declared as protected area by Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

According to Salvino, the tribesmen in the DENR protected area are pleading her office to help them secure a valid document that will prove that they are legitimate residents of the place.

She told Bicol Mail that she urged also the LGU Naga not to fail in providing the indigenous people living in the city’s upper barangays with basic services.

Salvino was present during the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s regular session on Tuesday, December 6, where she reported about the IP communities in Barangay San Isidro, Carolina and Panicuason.

Councilor Jose Perez, chairman of the Committee on Culture and the Arts, invited Salvino to attend the scheduled committee hearings set for the matter and for other concerns that the Agta Tabangon communities wish to be given solutions.

With regards to the tribesmen’s concern on their ancestral domain, Salvino said that appropriate collaborative efforts with various concerned agencies are now being undertaken by the NCIP to finally resolve the issue.