GenSan Mourns Passing of City Council’s First IP Representative

General Santos City (PNA) — The city government has declared a period of mourning over the passing of the incumbent and first-ever indigenous peoples’ (IP) mandatory representative at the city council or Sangguniang Panlungsod.

The city hall and legislative building’s flags were placed on half-mast starting on Thursday morning in honor of the late City Councilor and B’laan tribal chieftain Fulong Mario Empal, who died of cardiac arrest at around 10 p.m. at the Mindanao Medical Center here.

Vice Mayor Shirlyn Banas-Nograles said Empal’s death was a big loss to the city council and the entire local government.

She said the 62 year-old Empal was a hardworking city council member and properly represented the city’s tribal or IP sector.

“We were all stunned. It was so sudden and we never expected that it would come this soon,” she said.

Empal’s wife Virginia said they brought the city councilor to the hospital on Saturday night after he complained of not feeling well.

She said her husband already recovered and was due to leave the hospital when he suffered a cardiac arrest.

“He had a lot of plans and dreams for his fellow IPs and was thinking about his work while even at the hospital,” she said.

Empal assumed as the representative of the IP and Indigenous Cultural Communities at the city council on July 22 last year.

He was chosen for the post in January 2014 in a selection process facilitated by the local government and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) as mandated by Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 2007.

The NCIP in Region 12 issued on January 21, 2014 a certificate of affirmation on the selection of Empal by the IP and Indigenous Cultural Communities’ sector in the city but his formal assumption was put on hold pending the setting of the guidelines and to allow the city council to make the necessary preparations.

Among his major accomplishments were the holding last July 22 of the city’s first B’laan Day, the opening of a tribal or kafala hall and the conduct of a census for the area’s IPs. (PNA) FPV/AVE