Digest of the Dissenting Opinion of Chief Justice Puno in the case of Cruz vs.

Secretary Indigenous People's Rights Act of 1997, expressly converts ancestral land into public agricultural land which may be disposed of by the State. Agricultural land is private not part of the public domain and must first be converted to public agricultural land for registration purposes. The option must be exercised within 20 years to apply for Torrens Certificate of Title to ancestral lands only not DOMAINS, it should be individually owned and not communal. Agricultural Land can be owned by themselves or the predecessor in interest, in continuous possession and occupation, in the concept of an owner since time in memorial or for a period of not less than 30 years and which are uncontested by the members of the ICCs and IPS. The agricultural lands in character are actually use for agricultural, residential, pasture and tree farming purposes. Sec. 5 of the Article XII mention about ancestral land and ancestral domains but it does not classify them under any of the said categories (a) agricultural, (b) forest or timber, (c) mineral lands, and (d) national parks. To classify them as public lands under the 4 classes will render IPRA law as nullity. The spirit of IPRA lies in the distinct concept of ancestral domains and agricultural land. Land and space are vital concern in terms of sheer survival of the ICC/IPS. In the 1987 Constitution, it mandates to protect the rights of cultural communities to their ancestral land. The right of ownership and possession by the ICC/IPS is limited form of ownership and does not include the right to alienate the same. Registration presumes that the land was public agricultural but because of adverse possession or at least 30 years, the land become private. Open, adverse public and continuous possession is sufficient, provided that proper application confirmed judicially or administratively after which a Torrens title is issued, then become entitle to Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), it is a private but community property. Being a private property simply means not part of public domain but private character lands. The ancestral domain is owned in common by the ICC/ IPS not by a particular person, not the same as co-ownership where commercial rights are that the same as corporate rights over real property much less corporate condominium rights. Communal rights in the land are held not by the present possessor of the land but extend to the generations of the ICC/IPs past, present, and future, to the domain. It must be kept with the ICC/IPs in accord to customary law and traditions, subject to the right of redemption of the ICC/IPs for a period of 15 years if the land was transferred to a non member of the ICC/IPs. Customary laws are primary not secondary source of rights its recognition does not depend on the absence of a specific provisions in the civil law.