Together with church members and other organizations, the Ayta Indigenous people went to the NCIP Regional Office on October 23 in San Fernando, Pampanga to express their opposition to projects that are displacing them from their own land. These projects by big bourgeois and foreign companies include large-scale quarrying and mining, as well as golf courses and solar farms.

Prior to this, they gathered in a forum to establish Pamilalamu, an association of Indigenous and church groups, and Mansaway, the Ayta Indigenous people’ separate organization. The Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas participated in the forum.

At the gathering, they discussed the indigenous people’s right to defend themselves and their ancestral lands against land grabbers. In the discussions, similarities emerged between the experiences of the Ayta and those of other oppressed Indigenous groups in the country. They also saw the inutility of the NCIP, which colludes with big businesses and foreign companies in seizing their lands and establishing projects destructive to their communities, culture, and environment.

“Under the current situation, the NCIP is clearly not a defender but a promoter of destructive projects,” according to Katribu. The group hold the agency accountable for issuing anomalous certificates of precondition that blatantly violate the genuine process of obtaining Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC).

“Its collusion with mining, energy, and agribusiness companies must be investigated, along with the manipulation of the FPIC process that allows projects to enter without the consent of the communities,” it said.