Former anti-insurgency body chief Allen Capuyan announced Monday that he will elevate Indigenous peoples’ (IP) advocacy to a higher level of struggle by participating in the 2025 senatorial elections.

The controversial retired military officer, who served as Chairperson of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), has been at the forefront of the IPs’ struggle for their rights and lands, as several IP communities in Mindanao have endorsed his senatorial bid.

“With the mounting attacks against IPRA and our communities, the voices from the wilderness must not remain silent,” said Capuyan, referring to movements from groups with vested interests to amend the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 and diminish the mandate of the NCIP.

He said a leaked summary of a meeting between the NCIP and leaders of the House of Representatives has substantiated these attacks. The summary reveals the House Leaders’ intention to undermine the NCIP due to the Indigenous Peoples' persistent opposition to projects planned within their ancestral domains.

For more than two decades, Capuyan has been instrumental in organizing IP communities in Mindanao, which led to the establishment of the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Conference of Peace and Development (MIPCPD) that has been active in providing an alternative platform to voice the concerns of their sector.

This is why it did not come as a surprise that former President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Capuyan at the helm of NCIP in 2018. Under his leadership, the NCIP was transformed into a proactive agency with multiple collaborative engagements with institutional partners under the whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approach.

Capuyan also served as the Executive Director of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict – the key element that brought the CPP-NPA-NDF to its knees, using convergence between government agencies to align the delivery of basic services to the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDA).

These GIDAs have served as the breeding ground of communist activities for the past five decades. With the entry of government services by implementing ELCAC’s framework and the Barangay Development Program, communities' hope has been rekindled.

Capuyan’s advocacies and platform intersect in these disadvantaged areas. Ancestral domains of IP communities located in far-flung localities have been historically neglected by the government, which made recruitment to violent organizations, whether by the NPA or private armed groups, become much easier. According to the senatorial aspirant, 70% of NPA’s combatants are recruited from IP communities, with their poverty being manipulated to serve a violent and senseless ideology.

“We must remember that our IPs have been nation-builders since time immemorial,” he added, hoping his senatorial bid will trigger platforms for unities for IP communities to defend their rights.

Capuyan is running under the Partido Pilipino sa Pagbabago.