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MANILA – The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) on Wednesday said it recognizes the indigenous youth has important role in shaping the lives of indigenous peoples (IPs) and their respective communities.
This, as the NCIP joined the commemoration of the International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples 2023 with the theme, “Indigenous Youth as Agents of Change for Self-Determination.”
“The NCIP recognizes the integral role of the Indigenous Youth to shape their own lives in view of their indigenous communities’ distinct self-governance, including their political, legal, economic, social, and cultural institutions,” NCIP Chairperson Allen Capuyan said in a statement.
Capuyan said the agency has ramped up its initiatives to “eradicate marginalization and other vulnerabilities” of indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples (ICCs/IPs).
He said the NCIP has facilitated the implementation of education to IP students enrolled in 3,500 schools throughout the country.
Through the educational assistance under the Merit Based Scholarship Program (MBSP), Capuyan said qualified IP learners from elementary to college have been given educational assistance and scholarships.
“To instill cultural sensitivity, orientation on ICCs/IPs culture, customs and traditions has also been given to schools to equip them of better understanding IP learners and students,” he said.
Capuyan said the NCIP, in recent months, has also stepped-up efforts to “tell the story of the ICCs/IPs especially the IP youth in the country to international stakeholders.”
The NCIP, he said, led the Philippine delegation at the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in Geneva, Switzerland and has actively participated in the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII) in New York, USA.
“In both international events, the NCIP presented the situations of the ICCs/IPs in the country and promote the rights and welfare of the indigenous peoples in the international arena,” Capuyan said.
The NCIP’s participation is vital, he said, to “build linkages and networks advancing the whole-of-nation and whole-of-government interventions, and finally empowering IP youths as stewards of unification, capacitation, and mobilization as partners in nation building.” (PNA)
