Sometime in 1993, petitioner Nicasio Alcantara was granted Forest Land Grazing Lease Agreement No.

542 (FLGLA No. 542) by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Under said FLGLA, Alcantara was allowed to lease Nine Hundred TwentyThree (923) hectares of public forest land at Sitio Lanton, Barrio Apopong, General Santos City for grazing purposes for a period of twenty-five (25) years to expire on 31 December 2018. As early as 1990, however, private respondent Rolando Paglangan together with Esmael Sabel and Lasid Acop filed a letter-complaint with the Commission on Settlement of Land Problems (COSLAP) seeking the cancellation of FLGLA No. 542 and the reversion of the entire 923 hectares to the Blaan and Maguindanaoan tribes, they claim that they and their predecessor have
been cultiviating, possessing and occupying it since time immemorial and that the Christian settles started occupying the area only after World War II. As a result, there was constant friction between the indigenous inahbitantts and the settles, with the dispute, at times, erupting in violence. Overpowered, the indigenous people enventually lost physical control of much of the land. . On 3 August 1998 COSLAP rendered its decision that the 923 hectares is Ancestral Land. On 20 July 2001 the Supreme Court on GR No. 145838decided that COSLAP has jurisdiction to decide the case, that FLGLA was issued in violation of the law, and that the 923 hectares were Ancestral Land. Alcantara questioned the execution of the decision and the cancellation of the FLGLA arguing that he has residual rights under Indigenous People Rights Act. SC: Alancantara had no such right. This case is not covered by IPRA but by other laws existing at the time the COSLAP took cognizance of the case. Before, IPRA, the rights of the ICCs/IPs to recover their ancestral land was governed by Presidential Decree (PD) No. 410, which declared ancestral lands of national cultural communities as alieanable and disposable, and EO No. 561 which created COSLAP. Theese laws were bases of the Court's decision in GR No. 145838. That the rights of most ICCs/IPs went largely unrecognized despite these laws was not due to the laws inadequacies, but due to government indefference and the political inertia in their implementation. The filing of this case by Alcantara is outright Forum Shopping. The court, in GR No. 145838 recognized the inherent right of the ICCs/IPs to recover their ancestral land from outsider and usrupers. Seen by many as a victory attained by the private respondents only after a long and costly effort, the Court, as a guardian and instrument of social justice, abhors a further delay in the resolution of this controversy and brings it to its fitting conclusion by denying the petition.

The Court of Appeals also stated that based on the records, the the land area being claimed by private respondents belongs to the Blaan indigenous cultural community since they have been in possession of, and have been occupying and cultivating the same since time immemorial, a fact has not been disputed by petitioner.[12] It was likewise declared by the appellate court that FLGLA No. 542 granted to petitioner violated Section 1 of Presidential Decree No. 410[13] which states that all unappropriated agricultural lands forming part of the public domain are declared part of the ancestral lands of the indigenous cultural groups occupying the same, and these lands are further declared alienable and disposable, to be distributed exclusively among the members of the indigenous cultural group concerned.