The 2009 experts meeting on the recognition and protection of Asean Communal Intellectual Property Rights held simultaneously with the Dungog: Indigenous Peoples Festival on October 3 to 6, in Roxas City, Capiz, focused on the protection of the vast wealth of heritage and traditions of the indigenous peoples. Among the main questions asked and answered during the three-day meeting, especially during the open forum, were on the issues of ownership of rights and protection of traditional heritage.

The presenters and participants were composed of experts from different countries including Thailand, Australia, Myanmar, Singapore, Cambodia, Palau, and the Philippines with special guest presenters Minister Faustina K. Rehuher-Marugg of the Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs of the Republic of Palau; Jessyca Van Weelde of the World Intellectual Property Rights (WIPO); Mr. Jim Mather, Inaugural Chair of the World Indigenous Television Network (WITBN); and the Philippines’ Atty. Elizabeth Pulumbarit and Atty. Andrew Michael Ong from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The discussions centered on existing laws on the protection of tangible and intangible heritage, their experiences in their respective countries, and what their governments and organizations have been doing to ensure the protection of intellectual property rights particularly of the indigenous peoples.

In her keynote speech, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, executive director of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, urged the participants of the Experts Meeting to come up with measures to stop exploitation of indigenous peoples, a “strong resolution or declaration to address their needs.”

She said that two of the major problems faced by our indigenous peoples are their absence in the country’ national consciousness and exploitation. “I have come from a very deep experience where I have seen exploitation, where I have seen violations of the rights of our indigenous peoples where their cultural expressions and traditions are misappropriated and utilized without acknowledgement and royalty payment or benefits accruing to the community, and without respect to their integrity and social signification.

Alvarez shared one example of exploitation involving the T’bolis whose wealth of chants, music and way of thinking were collected by a European researcher/producer, resulting in a recording. She said that this recording is now being sold overseas but the T’boli women had not been given anything in return and that there had been no arrangement at all about how the women will be acknowledged and renumerated. She stressed the need for a standard instrument to protect the communal or individual rights of indigenous peoples’ creative industry.

Alvarez is optimistic that partnership with the IPO and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on the Indigenous Peoples Creative and Artistic Products (IPCAP) paradigm can complement the One Town, One Product (OTOP) concept to promote marketing and entrepreneurship.

Challenges, suggestions and directions

• Minister Faustina K. Rehuher-Marugg of the Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs of the Republic of Palau shared that Palau was able to adopt a Copyright Law in 2003 and has since made initiatives in the Protection and Promotion of Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Culture (TKEC). She added that the country has undertaken initiatives on indigenous library, policies on cultural and environmental perspectives, traditional knowledge and expressions, possible domains and possible typologies, and Palau-an terms that exemplify nature and culture.

• Jim Mather, Inaugural Chair of the World Indigenous Television Network (WITBN), an alliance of indigenous broadcasters mandated to promote, protect, and revitalize endangered native languages and cultures arising from past colonizations or repressive assimilation policies, shared that intellectual property and the protection of cultural integrity is becoming more and more a key issue not just for the television but for all media organizations. “IP protection is a real challenge for any broadcast organization because you need to protect the cultural integrity of what you are broadcasting,” he said.

• Dr. Noel Ramiscal of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños pointed out that a lot of the problems
are felt by the indigenous communities on the moral rights of attribution. He said that a databank of the indigenous people should be protected. “Sharing of the information from the databank must first go through a clearing house to determine whether the objective of the applicant who wants access to the databank is valid,” he said.

• In response to a participant who asked if it is feasible for the ASEAN to set a standard or regulatory procedure for ethnographers to protect the intellectual property rights of the indigenous people, Philippine delegate, Atty. Pete Principe who talked about the preservation of intangible and intellectual property suggested that there should be an office that will be in charge of integrating the concerns of the Asean member-countries in as far as intellectual property of cultural heritage is concerned.

• Thailand representative Weerawit Weeraworawit emphasized that each member-country should be active in registering all traditional knowledge in their respective countries. “They should have a collective databank that will serve as reference and basis to establish communal intellectual property rights in the region,” he said.

• Ivan Yeo, head of the Singaporean delegation, expressed his view on the differences of every country government standards and, that if one looks at it from the top down, everyone will have a different view. He added that should one start from the bottom up, he might be able to get a little commonality that way.

• Dr. Khin Maung Nyunt of Myanmar pointed out that the big challenges facing their country, as well as other countries in the world, are the challenges of globalization. He said that the Asean must have a clear perspective on what steps to undertake in safeguarding intellectual property rights.

• Jessyca Van Weelde, Consultant on Traditional Creativity, Cultural Expressions, Cultural Heritage Section of the Traditional Knowledge Division of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), shared that by the next budgetary bi-annum, 2010 and 2011, the committee will undertake tax-based negotiations with the objective of reaching an agreement on the text of an international legal instrument/s that will ensure the genetic protection of traditional knowledge and TCEs. She added that the IGC has also undertaken a Creative Heritage Project as a capacity-building activity. The project is developing best practices and guidelines for managing intellectual property issues when recording, digitizing, and disseminating intangible cultural heritage.