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Maeng Ancestral Domain Plan Blessed by Tubo IP Elders

The Maeng tribe gets favorable blessing from IP elders in the ceremonial bagawas ritual performed during the Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP) community validation on June 13, 2013 in Tubo, Abra.

Subjected to the community’s review and validation were the tribe’s ancestral domain profile; indigenous knowledge systems and practices; development framework and programs on agriculture, environment, water and forest conservation planning, infrastructure, social, and governance; and ancestral domain policies and management mechanisms.

The validation that gathered more than a hundred participants, including barangay leaders and elders, representatives from the local government and local organizations, and other stakeholders, is just a few treads away from ADSDPP formulation.

Recognizing the importance of the ADSDPP in strengthening self-governance and self-determination of the Maeng tribe, ABC president and incoming vice mayor Johnny T. Gattud urged “newly elected local officials to adopt and implement the plan”, which embodies the tribe’s aspirations and recognizes the threatened indigenous knowledge systems and practices of indigenous communities. This plan can be “a basis of the local government in crafting solutions to conservation problems,” added IP facilitator Francisco Cayasen.

Meantime, FPE executive director Godofredo T. Villapando, Jr. highlighted that the ADSDPP may spin-off FPE support to other partners. He also committed to alleviate the tribes plight on mining that endangers the Maeng’s ancestral domain. For his part, FPE Board member Fr. Edwin Gariguez underscored that dap-ay should be further enriched. Dap-ay is a governance system of the IP groups in the Cordilleras, where the governing body composed of IP elders collectively settle disputes, resolve conflicts, issue laws and customary conducts, to name a few.

Through the Mainstreaming Indigenous Peoples Participation in Environmental Governance (MIPPEG) project of the FPE, EU-FUNDESO and PAFID, in partnership with NCIP Provincial Office, the Maeng are hopeful they can finally concretize their ancestral domain plan soon.