Baguio’s first IP representative to join city council after taking oath

Baguio City on map

BAGUIO CITY — For the first time, an indigenous peoples mandatory representative is joining the Baguio City Council.

Maximo Hilario Edwin Bugnay Jr., who was elected by the city’s Ibaloy, Kankanaey and Kalanguya clans on Jan. 6, took his oath of office before Mayor Benjamin Magalong at 11:30 a.m. on Friday (Feb. 3).

The council will welcome the IPMR as its 16th member, and the body will file a supplementary budget for his new office and staff, said Councilor Arthur Allad-iw in an interview.

Bugnay received his certification on Thursday from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, which sat en banc to recognize the election, Allad-iw said.

A previous IPMR was elected in 2016 but the selection of Roger Sinot triggered disputes and lawsuits because he had been convicted in another province which would have made him ineligible to run for that office.

In 2018, a Baguio court issued a writ of a preliminary injunction that stopped Sinot from assuming office.

The Kankanaey and Kalanguya families of Baguio also wanted to participate in the IPMR selection, which was originally undertaken solely by Baguio Ibaloys. Under the rules, IPMRs are elected by clans residing in an ancestral domain—Baguio’s only ancestral domain in Happy Hallow inside Camp John Hay which Ibaloys dominate.

The IPMR selection fulfills Section 16 of Republic Act No. 8371 (the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997), which recognizes the right of indigenous Filipinos to representation in all decision-making bodies in government.

Bugnay in January, said he would assert their political and land rights in the summer capital.

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