MANILA—Anti-insurgency campaign is not among the activities funded under the proposed 2023 budget and the recent budget of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, its chair said Friday.

But NCIP Chairperson Allen Capuyan said the commission has been part of the whole-of-government approach to put an end to local communist armed conflict since 2018, based on an executive order.

He issued the statement during the NCIP’s budget hearing before the House Committee on Appropriations on Friday.

The panel last week deferred consideration of NCIP’s budget due to Capuyan’s alleged red-tagging of indigenous peoples and progressive groups. Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman had said the commission dabbled in activities that are not within its mandate, using its meager funds.

Capuyan wrote a letter to lawmakers to explain the matter.

“We sent an official letter to the House of Representatives and concerned congressmen on the issues of conflict on the mandate of NCIP and why it is performing other activities. We have submitted the first document, which is the Republic Act No. 8371,” Capuyan told the panel.

"And the second document we have submitted is Executive Order No. 70 series of 2018, in which the National Commission on Indigenous eoples as an agency is part of the 17 agencies as execom members in implementing the whole-of-government approach, the whole-of-nation approach to the framework of good governance in putting an end to the local communist armed conflict."

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Capuyan said the NTF-ELCAC provides the NCIP "the opportunity that we can bring this problem into the national efforts, and this is discussed not only by the NCIP but by other agencies of government.”

“There is none in the budget of P1.5 billion, that we’re undertaking the anti-insurgency movement. It is in the whole-of-nation approach that discussion on insurgency is discussed and most of these are sponsored by the funds available to the National Task Force-ELCAC secretariat. But the funds we submitted since 2019 doesn’t put there that we’ll be advancing the anti-insurgency campaign,” he noted.

The NCIP has a proposed 2023 budget of more than P1.4 billion, around half of the P2.8 billion it requested.

Capuyan said the commission would need additional funding of at least P700 million. Baguio City Rep. Mark Go expressed support for the proposed budget augmentation for NCIP.

The House Committee terminated the budget hearings on Friday. Plenary deliberations will begin on September 21.