By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
I had two main visitors today. One was a long-lost friend whom I never met for decades already. She got married and settled abroad. Her visit brought back memories of long ago.
The other one was a relative who I last saw a few years back. She brought a lot of news though about relatives back home. Who? When? Where? (Tsimis). The news also brought back memories of long ago.
Somehow, those memories awakened what I wanted to do for this paper many years ago. I wanted to do articles on Supreme Court decisions about how we, Cordillerans, were discriminated against and which were countenanced or allowed, if not institutionalized by our own government.
Big words but don’t be intimidated by these. I wanted to do it in a light way, in laymen’s terms any Cordilleran with a two-digit IQ should be able to understand. Nothing heavy. But then again that is the challenge.
As one older lawyer advised me before, don’t write like a lawyer. In clearer terms, don’t write in a boring way. Well, I will try.
By no means will the articles be scholarly. It will not mean having an extensive survey of all court decisions and then arrange them in an orderly manner. That will mean a lot of work. And a lot of time which I don’t have.
When I brought this thing out to the NCIP (National Commission on Indigenous Peoples) lawyers, I told them that I would just fulfill my promise to myself of writing about the import of such cases in an understandable way. I know how to read Supreme Court decisions and I know how to write some articles in simple terms. But I will do it on a piecemeal basis. I it would not be in a continuous manner. The articles will be on whatever will take my fancy.
What is the point? The point is, some people might be interested to dig more or to contribute some aspects that might have been forgotten or missed.
Another long shot goal is we might come up or elicit from others ideas on how the NCIP (and its officials) might improve so it could achieve its mandate of, among so many other things, to serve in an efficient and transparent way the interest of its constituents. An impossible task? We are not losing hope, because like our corrupt, inefficient and incompetent national government, it is the only one we indigenous people have.
A valuable source of information would be the NCIP lawyers that is why I sought their opinions, help and cooperation. Their feedback was positive. Hopefully, they will not chicken out in the middle of the river. That will not dissuade us, anyway.
This matter should have been started a month ago as October was Indigenous Peoples’ month but I did not feel yet the energy on my side to start. Do I have it now? At least, I have the interest to begin. So see you in the coming issues of this paper. If you cannot get hold of a hard copy, go to our website. We are just a few clicks away at zigzagweekly.net.
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