Newly-appointed National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) chairperson Allen Capuyan dismissed on Saturday news reports that cast doubts on his qualifications to lead the agency on claims that he is not a bonafide member of any IP group or indigenous cultural community (ICC).
In a statement, Capuyan said he is an IP by blood as he comes from the Manobo Tribe of Agusan Del Sur, contrary to some media reports which questioned his legitimacy as an IP member.
"I am an IP by blood from the Manobo Tribe of Agusan Del Sur," the NCIP head said.
He added that he has the lineage and certification to prove that he is a legitimate IP member as he even became a Commission of National Integration College Scholar prior his entry to the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in 1979 and graduation in 1983.
The Commission of National Integration is the forerunner of NCIP.
In response to claims that Capuyan and his commissioners must "come from one of the seven ethnographic/cultural areas", the NCIP official said he went through this process to be selected as NCIP Ethnographic Region Commissioner for Regions 11 (Davao Region) and 13 (Caraga) last May 27.
Capuyan resigned as Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) assistant general manager for security and emergency services in April 2018 to heed President Rodrigo R. Duterte's request for him to join his brethrens from the ICCs and IPs and liberate them from poverty and terrorism caused by the communist terror groups (CTGs).
"I resigned from MIAA, heeding to a call from President Duterte sometime February 2018 when he told me, 'for the last time, as your patriotic duty and love of country, join your brethren ICCs/IPs and liberate them from poverty and terrorism by the CTGs," he added.
This led to his appointment as Presidential Adviser On Indigenous Peoples' concern, with the rank of Undersecretary in April 2018.
Despite not having any position connected to any agencies or offices related to IPs and ICCs, Capuyan said he served the Indigenous People Advocacy from 1999 to the present.
"I also served in the IP Advocacy from 1999 to 2019 but went fulltime from 2008-2015," he added.
He retired eight years ahead from the mandatory military retirement age of 56 in 2010 in line with efforts to help the IPs in Mindanao regarding their struggles.
Regarding his appointment as Executive Director of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) in March concurrent with his post and primacy as NCIP chair, Capuyan believes that this is due to the President's desire to have someone who will work hard to implement Republic Act No. 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples' Right Act (IPRA) of 1997.
"The wisdom I hold both position is the President desire to have a laser focus actions for the ICCs/IPs full implementation of the intent and spirit of IPRA," he added.
The NCIP chief believes that the IPRA law can be only be implemented to the fullest if the ICCs and IPs are liberated from their almost 50 years of infiltration, destruction, influence and control brought by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) and total exposure for the National Democratic Front (NDF) and and its allies who are behind the so-called revolutionary dual tactics, extortions, mass killing and corruption of the IP culture.
The CPP-NPA which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
He also challenged the CPP-NPA and NDF to send representatives and witnesses to discuss every detail of the communist rebels' 17 major atrocities against the country's IPs for the last 50 years.
"Don't hide in your own propaganda machinery and organization. Just like Satan, you are in this world to steal, kill and destroy (and) trying to appear like an angel championing human rights," he added.
The time of reckoning for communist terrorists and their allies for crimes committed against the ICCs and IPs will come and will be revealed in due time, with the truth setting the country free, Capuyan said.
With the NTF ELCAC gaining momentum, thanks to the multitude of approaches, the government, as Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin earlier said, now has a clear framework and basis for national convergence which they can even tell and expound to CPP founding chair Jose Maria "Joma" Sison to convince him to join and implement the plan, he said.
"Lastly the NTF ELCAC is taking off from the environment of whole-of-government, whole-of-nation (approach), enhanced good governance, pro-people and culture/human rights sensitive and more involvement of civilian agencies in the 12 lines of efforts/clusters with the AFP/PNP going back to its core competencies," he said.
The NTF ELCAC was created through Executive Order 70 signed by President Duterte on Dec. 4, 2018.
This provides for a whole-of-nation approach in defeating the local communist terrorist groups.
Earlier, the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples (IP) Council of Elders and Leaders (MIPCEL) said it will never support efforts to discredit Capuyan.
The group issued the statement Thursday following leftist group Sandugo's strongly-worded protest to the former military officer's appointment to the NCIP which was made public Tuesday.
"The appointment of Capuyan speaks loudly of the NTF (National Task Force) to End Local Communist Armed Conflict that in fact targets the Indigenous Peoples organizations and leaders. These attacks against us with Capuyan at the helm of the NCIP will further intensify as if we are the enemies. The appointment of another soldier in a civilian post shows that the Duterte government is mustering all its agencies against. This is the core of the 'Whole of Nation Approach' in the government’s Oplan Kapayaan counter-insurgency program. These are instruments that Capuyan and Duterte’s other military minions will use hand in hand with direct military actions," the group said.
MIPCEL claimed there is nothing original with the statement issued by Sandugo as it merely parroted it from Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
Such allegations, the group said, will never be supported by the IPs and the public in general.
Having retired general Allen Capuyan, who is also concurrently the Executive Director of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC), serving as the head of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), is a direct challenge to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)/New People's Army (NPA) continued access to lumad/indigenoous peoples tribes in the Cordillera region but especially in North and Eastern Mindanao where lumad NPA recruits reportedly constitute around 75% of insurgent forces in the region. This is why CPP front groups like SANDUGO and KARAPATAN are conducting propaganda attacks against the appointment of Capuyan to head the NCIP.
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