Question & AnswerQ&A (NCIP ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 3, S. OF 2002, FEBRUARY 19, 2002)
The title is the Revised Guidelines for FPIC (Free and Prior Informed Consent) and issuance of Certificate Precondition.
They aim to ensure community participation in decision-making for FPIC, protect the rights of ICCs/IPs, provide procedures, standards, and fees for investigation, impose sanctions for prohibited acts, and ensure just partnership between ICC/IP communities and other parties.
It declares that policies and projects affecting ancestral domains should not be implemented without the free and prior informed consent of the ICCs/IPs, recognizing their right to manage their lands and resources and instituting protective mechanisms for these rights.
It is a certification by the NCIP that a site applied for an activity does not overlap with any ancestral domain area or, if it does, that the required FPIC has been properly obtained.
They are groups who have continuously lived as organized communities on defined territories claimed since time immemorial, sharing common language, customs, traditions, or who have retained their own institutions despite colonization or displacement.
Activities include exploration, development, or utilization of natural resources for commercial purposes, research, archaeological activities, religious site access, displacement or relocation projects, business or development inside ancestral domains, and others that affect ancestral domain areas or ICCs/IPs' rights.
The process includes endorsement from concerned agencies, conduct of field-based investigation by NCIP, preparation and submission of operation plans, payment of fees, conduct of FPIC proceedings involving community elders/leaders, and issuance of certification or denial based on consensus or rejection.
Indigenous peoples must participate through their indigenous socio-political structures, especially the council of elders/leaders who represent the community in consensus-building and decision-making.
The MOA records the agreements and conditions between the ICC/IP community, proponents, and NCIP after FPIC is granted, including benefits, responsibilities, protection measures, monitoring, and penalties.
Prohibited acts include use of force or coercion, bribery, clandestine negotiations, delivering donations to influence communities, gifts or money acceptance by NCIP officials or IP members, and undue influence by government or non-government entities outside consultation processes.