DEC.

31, 2011 DATE

NR # 2634B
REF. NO.

House approves bill declaring August 9 as National Day of Indigenous Peoples

The House of Representatives has recently approved on second reading a bill declaring August 9 of every year as National Day of Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines. House Bill 5180 seeks to increase the awareness and generate support on the respect for the rights and promotion of the collective well being of indigenous peoples in the country. The bill was endorsed for plenary approval by the House Committee on National Cultural Communities chaired by Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat, Jr. (Lone District, Ifugao). The annual observance of the National Day of Indigenous Peoples will be a key venue to advance indigenous peoples rights and welfare, said Baguilat, principal author of the bill. Baguilat said August 9 of every year was declared International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations General Assembly in 1994. On August 9, 1982, the first day of the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights was held. This day is being celebrated every year by an estimated 300 million population of indigenous peoples worldwide, Baguilat said. In the Philippines, August 9 is celebrated by many indigenous organizations, support groups including the United Nations offices based here in the country, Baguilat added. Baguilat said the countrys IPs still remain to be part of the most marginalized and discriminated sector of the society and their plight remain piled up with the many other issues that the country is facing. According to Baguilat, the National Commission on Culture and the Arts has initiated the issuances of Presidential Proclamation 1906 and 486 declaring October of every year as Indigenous Peoples Month and every October 29 as Indigenous Peoples Thanksgiving Day, the day the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act was signed into law. Guided by the two proclamations, the Department of Education yearly announces a month-long celebration, with an IP centered celebration every October, the NCCA-sponsored Dayaw Festival, which is a convergence activity that includes teaching sessions with the IPs rights, providing them with legal and technical assistance, said NCCA Deputy Executive Director Marlene Ruth Sanchez. Gabriela Party List Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan (Partylist, Gabriela), co-author of the bill, said a special day for IPs would have greater advantage because it would be considered a signal for government agencies such as Department of Education or Commission on Higher Education to devote a day that will focus on IP concerns and issues which could be integrated into the subject matter on that particular day. (30) jsc