Igorot is Asian rep in UN forum

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — An Igorot woman has been chosen to represent indigenous communities in Asia in the United Nation’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII).

Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpuz, of the Kankana-ey tribe of Besao in Mountain Province, was chosen last week by the Asian Indigenous peoples’ selection process to represent Asia in the UNPFII for 2008 to 2010, according to UNPFII selection committee member Roy Laifungbam.

Corpuz won the selection process with nine country votes, while her closest rival, Ram Dayal Munda from the tribal societies of India, got six votes during the final voting conducted in Thailand on Jan. 28. One vote was invalidated while two other countries failed to cast their vote.

Laifungbam said that all the 42 indigenous peoples’ organizations (IPOs) in the Philippines that participated in the election voted for Tauli-Corpuz.

This is the second time she will serve as the "Asia expert" with the UNPFII, which she currently serves as the chairperson.

"I am extending my sincere gratitude to all IPOs of the 16 Asian countries who gave me this renewed mandate," Tauili-Corpuz said. "I will do my best to spend my last term to advance the goals of the Second Decade of World’s Indigenous People, which ends in 2015."

Tauli-Corpuz was instrumental in facilitating the visit of Dr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen to the Philippines. Stavenhagen is from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples.

Stavenhagen, who arrived in the country Thursday, was here until Saturday to dialogue with IPOs, government agencies led by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), UN agencies, bilateral donors, members of the Congress and Senate and other NGOs to see the progress made on his 2002 recommendations for uplifting the interest of the country’s indigenous communities.