KATRIBU Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas, Mansaway – Ayta Organization in Central Luzon, and advocate groups stormed the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Central Office on Friday, August 14, to hold the agency accountable for abandoning its mandate in protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights, in observance of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (IDWIP).
“NCIP remains an instrument of the state in allowing the entry of destructive projects into the ancestral lands of Indigenous Peoples without genuine Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, in direct violation of our right to self-determination,” said Bontok woman Funa-ay Claver, Secretary-General of KATRIBU. She condemned the NCIP’s latest FPIC Guidelines, allowing the fast-tracking of land-grabs and plunder of ancestral lands.
Rica Torres, an Ayta-Magindi from Pampanga and coordinator of Mansaway, expressed her condemnation as the NCIP continue to be inutile. “Magmula noong pumutok ang Bulkang Pinatubo noong 1991, pinutakte ng mga malalaking quarrying operations ang aming mga lupain, lalo na sa Tarlac, Pampanga, at Zambales. Ang lahar na siyang nagpalikas sa aming mga komunidad noon ang siya pa ring unti-unting nagpapalayas sa aming mga Ayta ngayon.”
Torres also added that presently, countless mining and renewable energy projects are being constructed in their ancestral lands. “Saan ka makakakita, tila dagat kung tignan sa malayo, pero ito pala ay mga solar panels na kumalbo sa aming mga kabundukan!” She cited the existing Olongapo Solar Project 1 by the Aboitiz Power Renewable Energy Corporation, with the undergoing plans for its Phase 2; and the Solar Plant by Ayala Corporation and planned Floating Solar Power Project by Aboitiz in San Marcelino, Zambales. “Ngayong tag-ulan, ilang daang pamilya ang nasalanta ng landslide at baha. Napipinto ang pagkawala ng kritikal na ilog-pangisdaan at tawiran ng mga Ayta. Pero sa dami ng mga RE projects na ito, wala pa ring kuryente sa karamihan ng aming mga komunidad.”
Referring to the Marcos Jr. administration’s participation in the Pax Silica Initiative, Claver stressed that the NCIP has only engaged affected communities after opposition to the initiative intensified. “It has been three months since the BBM administration entered the Pax Silica Initiative, a project that threatens to seize vast portions of our ancestral lands. The NCIP only held a dialogue with Ayta communities after their opposition became widespread and impossible to ignore. Even then, the dialogue was not genuine, as the Aytas’ participation and opportunity to speak were limited to three minutes. Our communities deserve more than token consultations, they deserve to have their voices heard and their rights respected.”
Torres also added, “Matagal nang inilako ng gobyerno ang aming lupang ninuno sa mga dayuhan at malalaking negosyante. Mula sa Clark Air Base na nagsilbing baseng militar ng mga sundalong Amerikano, matinding militarisasyon dulot ng BALIKATAN exercises, hanggang sa nakaambang Pax Silica ng gobyerno ng US. Pero, nananatili pa ring mahirap, gutom, at walang batayang serbisyo kaming mga Ayta. Malinaw pa sa tubig na ang mga proyektong ito ay nagsisilbi lamang sa dayuhang interes, hindi sa mga komunidad!”
The groups also condemned the US-Marcos regime’s National Action Plan for Unity, Peace, and Development (NAP-UPD), which has intensified militarization in Indigenous territories under the guise of peace and development. Indigenous communities continue to suffer militarization, harassment, forced evacuations, red-tagging, and other grave human rights violations that undermine their collective rights and violate International Humanitarian Law.
Lumad-Manobo woman Julieta Gomez of the Defend Talaingod 13 Network and KATRIBU said that NCIP Chairperson Catamco continues the Commission’s role in the counter-insurgency program of the government. She condemned that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict enters Indigenous communities with the help of the NCIP. “Nancy Catamco, daku ka ug kalapasan sa atong balaod sa tribu ug manubag ka sa katawhang Lumad. Kung tinuod ka nga Lumad, ipakita ang imong pakighiusa ug pagdapig sa imong mga Katribu, dili sa NTF-ELCAC ug sa mga kriminal nga mamamatay tao nga AFP!”.
Ibaloi-Bontok-Kankanaey youth Chuwaley Capuyan of TAKDER highlighted the continuing criminalization of Indigenous leaders through the weaponization of terror laws. She cited the recent dismissal by the Baguio Regional Trial Court of the petition filed by four Igorot leaders of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance seeking judicial review of their unlawful designation as terrorists by the Anti-Terror Council under the Anti-Terrorism Act. She also held the NCIP accountable for failing to protect her father, desaparecido Dexter Capuyan, who was abducted in April 2023 along with Indigenous rights defender Bazoo de Jesus.
As of June 2026, KATRIBU has documented 194 Indigenous Peoples, Moro, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights advocates who remain unjustly detained as political prisoners after being charged with fabricated criminal cases.
The protest ended with the Indigenous Peoples spearing the NCIP logo. The groups vowed to continue strengthening the movement of Indigenous Peoples and their allies against imperialist plunder, militarization, and all forms of attacks against their communities. They reiterated that genuine development can only be achieved by upholding Indigenous Peoples’ rights to their ancestral lands, self-determination, and a just and lasting peace founded on social justice.
Ephin Falyao, an yLias youth and National Coordinator of Siklab Philippine Indigenous Youth Network, called on Indigenous youth and all Filipinos to strengthen their unity in defending ancestral lands and asserting the right to self-determination. “The struggle of Indigenous Peoples is the struggle of the entire Filipino people. As long as our ancestral lands remain under attack from imperialist interests, destructive projects, and state repression, we will continue to resist,” she concluded. #
