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SOIL Awards recognizes 3 N. Luzon IP leaders

BAGUIO CITY (Sept. 29) — Three northern Luzon indigenous peoples’ (IP) leaders were recognized for their leadership during the Search for Outstanding Indigenous Peoples Leadership (SOIL) Awards on Sept. 27 at The Manila Penninsula in Makati City.

Chosen are Cecille Cariño-Afable (Baguio City) for media and education; Atty. William F. Claver (Mountain Province and Kalinga) for peace, human right and environment; and Inocencio G. Carganilla (Pangasinan) for business, entrepreneurship and livelihood.

Afable is the first Igorot woman writer who started 58 years ago the Baguio Midland Courier, which she has been editing for 22 years now. She founded the first women’s club in Baguio City, started the organization that drew in several Cordillera tribes (BIBAK). In the field of education and research, she organized the Mateo Cariñ Foundation to do pioneer research on ancestral lands and the Mountain Province Museum in Baguio.

Claver, also an Igorot, championed indigenous people’s rights and drafted the legislation for the recognition of ancestral domains at the 1971 Constitutional Convention. He consistently opposed the Chico River Basin Development Project, which did not succeed in inundating Kalinga and some part of Mountain Province. He also acted as lawyer to Macliing Dulag and several other political litigants.

Carganilla gained recognition for livelihood projects he initiated for his peasant organization that uplifted the economic plight of tribal communities in Sison, Pangasinan.

Other awardees are Justino Tiban Awid (Zamboanga) for public service and community leadership; and Romulo Caballero (Ilo-ilo) for arts and culture.

The Soil awards, which started in 1993, is a recognition of the outstanding achievements of selected indigenous peoples leaders in their respective communities and fields of endeavor which contributed to the well-being of their tribal constituents. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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