Katribu to NCIP Catamco’s NTF-ELCAC ExeCom membership: ‘Ang ahas, kahit anong palit ng balat, ahas pa rin’

April 27, 2026 - Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas slammed National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) chair Nancy Catamco’s executive committee membership on the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

Beverly Longid, national convener of Katribu, stressed, “We are not surprised as NCIP has been part of the NTF-ELCAC since its establishment under Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order 70. It was implemented through the whole-of-nation IP-centric approach of the Philippine government’s counterinsurgency program.”

Katribu recalled how the late Manobo warrior leader Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay openly castigated Catamco during the latter’s violent attempt to evict displaced Lumad from UCCP Haran in Davao City in 2015 using paramilitary forces.

Longid emphasized that this adds to a pattern of how the NCIP has long been embedded in the militarization of Indigenous territories: Retired colonel Allen Capuyan simultaneously served as NCIP chair and executive director of NTF-ELCAC.

Under Capuyan's leadership, the NCIP was marked by several massacres in Indigenous communities, manipulated Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes for plunderous projects in ancestral lands, and red-tagged terms like “Igorot,” “Lumad,” and “Tumandok,” among many others.

Longid said that the message is clear: "The NCIP has fully abandoned its mandate to protect and promote Indigenous Peoples’ rights." She added that if Catamco herself claims to be a Lumad but brings harm to her kins, graver violations of IP rights should be expected under her NCIP leadership and role in the NTF-ELCAC.

“Ang ahas, kahit anong palit ng balat, ahas pa rin,” said Longid. “For many Indigenous Peoples, Catamco, the NCIP, especially the NTF-ELCAC, do not represent us.”

Katribu reiterated its call to abolish both the NCIP and the NTF-ELCAC, asserting that agencies that consistently violate Indigenous Peoples’ rights do not hold any space in a just society.

Reference:

Beverly Longid

National Convener

Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas