The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) welcomed the issuance of Executive Order (EO) No. 71, signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on October 22, ordering the transfer of the administrative supervision of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to the Office of the President (OP).

The discussion for this transfer was raised last year to DSWD and OP when the National Anti-Poverty Commission-Indigenous People’s Sectoral Council (NAPC-IPSC) endorsed two resolutions — Resolution Bilang 1, s. 2023: “Resolusyon ng Taos Pusong Kahilingan ng Karagdagang Pondo para sa National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP); and Resolution No. 1, s. 2023: “Resolution Strongly Recommending to his Excellency President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., to return NCIP under the Office of the President.”

“The DSWD poses no objection on the recommendation to transfer the NCIP to the Office of the President (OP) as the said agency was originally created under the OP by virtue of Republic Act (RA) No. 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act,’” DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said in a letter dated January 17, 2024 to Atty. Naella Rose Bainto-Aguinaldo, Deputy Executive Secretary for General Administration (ODESGA) on the request of the deputy executive secretary for comment and concurrence on the NAPC-IPSC Resolution on the transfer of NCIP from the DSWD to the OP.

The NCIP became one of the three supervised agencies of the DSWD by virtue of Executive Order No. 67 series of 2018 which aimed at rationalizing the Office of the President through the consolidation of its core mandates and strengthening the democratic and institutional framework of the Executive Department. The other agencies are the NAPC and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP).

“With the encompassing mandate of the NCIP, the DSWD is of the opinion that the transfer of NCIP to the OP is imperative to effectively implement RA No. 8371 including those functions that are connected or intertwined with the roles of the Department of Agrarian Reforms (DAR) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR),” Secretary Gatchalian stated in his letter.

Under the new EO, the OP shall regain control over the NCIP as the commission’s mandate requires the immediate attention of the President.

The transfer, as stated in the EO is “consistent with the State policy to further promote and recognize the rights of ICCS/IPs (Indigenous Cultural Communities and/or Indigenous Peoples) within the framework of national unity and development.”

As the EO takes effect immediately upon its issuance, the DSWD pledged to extend necessary assistance to support the seamless transfer of the NCIP to the OP.#