BACOLOD City – The provincial government of Negros Occidental vowed to protect and promote the rights of IPs.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson signed Executive Order (EO) No. 19-26 series of 2019 which recognized “the serious need to create an inter-agency committee to facilitate and improve delivery of basic health services to our IP.”
Members of the IP-Provincial Inter-Agency Committee (IP-PIAC) affirmed the EO.
“This is for your rights, those which have already been given and those which you are yet to receive,” Provincial Health Officer Ernel Tumimbang, who chairs the committee, said.
He added IPs should be considered as “brothers and fellow Negrosanon” who should not be forgotten.
Meanwhile, Department of Health Nurse IV Kristine Solas said the government should bring services to IPs, noting that before bringing a program or service to the community, it should first be presented to their elders for permission as a respect to their culture.
Solas added they will be coming up with an Ethnographic Sensitivity Culture Manual that will guide workers in dealing with the IPs’ unique way of life.
Milina Jeruta, focal person for IP-PIAC and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, said the next move of the committee is to plan for this year and next year’s activities for IPs.
Section 5 of Republic Act 8371, or the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997, highlighted that Indigenous Cultural Communities/IPs have the right to special measures for the immediate, effective and continuing improvement of their economic and social conditions including the areas of employment, vocational training, housing, sanitation, health, and social security.(With a report from PIA-6/PN)