ROGER Sinot Sr., the previously-selected indigenous peoples’ mandatory representative (IPMR) for Baguio City, has filed a motion in court seeking the resolution of pending matters in civil cases 8783-R, 8785-R, and 8899-R – civil cases related to Sinot’s embattled appointment as IPMR for Baguio.
According to the motion filed by Sinot, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), as the counsel for the government, had in its official capacity answered favorably to Sinot’s stand with regards to certain points, specifically that the selection of Sinot as the IPMR of Baguio was regular and valid as it had complied with the requirements provided under the law; that there is no requirement for a particular IP sector or community to be marginalized before it can be entitled to representation via an IPMR to the city; that the selection of Sinot was based on Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997; and that the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) and writ of preliminary injunction blocking Sinot’s appointment as IPMR was unwarranted.
With the support of the OSG, Sinot is petitioning the court to resolve the pending incidents in the aforementioned civil cases.
The move came after Baguio City accepted another IPMR, Maximo Hilario Edwin Bugnay Jr., who was elected by the city’s Ibaloy, Kankanaey and Kalanguya clans on January 6 and had taken his oath of office on February 3.
Sinot was originally elected in 2016 but was stopped from assuming the position by Roland Calde, then-director of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in the Cordillera, by means of a TRO, writ of preliminary injunction, and refusal to issue a certificate of affirmation.
