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Indigenous Peoples, Ancestral Lands and Human Rights in the Philippines

On the night of June 7, 1993, two farmers were shot and killed in Upper Bulacao, Barangay Pardo, Cebu City. The gunman, identified by several at the scene, remains at large, as do those with whom he conspired to commit the murders - for few believe he acted alone. This incident, which attracted only brief attention in the Cebu City press, was the latest and dealiest escalation in an acrimonious local and dispute dating from 1988. The dispute concerns a rocky 118-hectare parcel of hillside land on the outskirts of Cebu City, and pits, on the one hand, a group of 349 subsistence farmers long occupying and growing corn on the land against, on the other, Aznar Enterprises, Inc. and the Santa Lucia Realty Development Corporation, who together seek to develop the land into a golf course and upper-class residential area. HUMAN RIGHTS AND LAND DISPUTES Both sides claim to own the land in question. The Aznar-Sta. Lucia group claims that the farmers are only long-time squatters, with no permanent rights to the land, and further points to a resolution of the Cebu City council (for which it had lobbied) declaring the land in question to be residential, not agricultural. The farmers, in contrast, some of show have occupied the land since the late 1930s, claim to have been tenants of Aznar who subsequently qualified to receive land titles under Operation Land Transfer (OLT), a Marcos-era land reform program created by Presidential Decree 27. While the law appears to be on the side of the farmers (the OLT process was in fact already underway in 1991), the relevant government agencies (the Department of Agrarian Reform, DAR, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, DENR) have - apparently under pressure from the business interests involved - not come to their aid. Indeed, despite the presence of several court injunctions and restraining orders obtained by the farmers with the assistance of a local nongovernmental organization (NGO), and despite the absence of the legally-required permits from DAR and DENR, the Aznar-Sta. Lucia group has gone slowly ahead with its development plans, pressuring those who have received OLT titles to sell out to the group on unfavorable terms, and periodically bulldozing farms at the site. The two June 1993 murders are generally believed to represent an escalation in this pattern of intimidation (FARDEC 1993). When I visited the site myself in July 1993, Sta. Lucia's bulldozers were continuing their incremental clearing of the disputed area. About a hundred members of a local farmers' association, other residents, and representatives of two local NGOs siding with the farmers in the battle against Aznar watched under the intimidating presence of two AK47-bearing gunmen - in military uniforms, but with name labels removed. With the ultimate outcome still in doubt, it was an emotional scene, which saw considerable anguish or resignation expressed on the one hand, and, on the other, some hopeful talk about yet another and perhaps this-time-successful court suit, now framed against the alleged "developmental aggression" of the would-be land developers. More generally, there was spirited (and, in my observation, quite sophisticated) discussion about the nature of "development" in the Philippines and about what sort of development it was that dispossessed already-poor people who could only flock into the city and become even poorer.

This particular controversy is ordinary enough; local dramas of this sort are played out regularly, throughout the Philippines. Indeed, I have selected it as prologue precisely because of its ordinariness, a term I trust will not be taken as an effort on my part to make light of its considerable human costs. Rather, I believe that the PARDO controversy, as it is called, illustrates in microcosm a number of important themes common to the current situation in the Philipines concerning indigenous peoples and human rights in general: 1 Access to land, and hence to livelihood, is central to all discourse about indigenous peoples and human rights in the Philippines; 2 There is fact exists a variety of legislation, old and new, designed to secure such access for indigenous peoples (e.g., P.D.27; Integrated Social Forestry Program (ISFP); 3 Elites and their political allies regularly find ways to defeat or circumvent the intent of this legislation and to deny to indigenous peoples the land and other rights they in fact have under the law, ways that include legal and extralegal use of the courts and of the military; 4 Numerous local and international NGOs are aligned with indigenous peoples and attempt to provide them with the legal and other kinds of assistance they need to combat such machinations; 5 Surrounding such cases is a considerable amount of discourse (and even outright confusion) about who should benefit from "development" and - although this goes beyond the present case - about who, precisely, "indigenous people" are, and about the relationships between such issues and the environmental movement. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE PHILIPPINES Many categorizations of indigenous peoples in the Philippines are possible, but for purposes here a fairly conventional one employed by the Episcopal Commission on Tribal Filipinos (ECTF) will serve. ECTF estimates that there are approximately 6.5 million indigenous peoples, composing about 10 percent of the total Philippine population and belonging to over 40 distinct ethnolinguistic groups, which can be grouped in the following fashion: (1) the Lumad of Mindanao, various non-Muslim tribal peoples found in virtually every province of Mindanao, numbering around 2.1 million people and including such groups as the T'Boli, the Manobo, the Mandaya, the Subanun, the Tiruray, the Bagobo, and the B'laan; (2) the Peoples of the Cordillera, indigenous inhabitants of the five provinces of the Cordillera mountain range of Northern Luzon, numbering around 1 million people and including such groups as the Ifugao, Bontoc, Kalinga, Isneg, Ibaloy, Tinngguian, and Kankaney; and (3) various other, widely scattered tribal peoples of the hinterlands of Central and Southern Luzon, some islands in the Visayas, Mindoro, and Palawan, and including the various "Negrito" groups (Dumagat, Agta, Batak, etc.), the various Mangyan groups, the Tagbanua, and the Pala'wan. In some parts of the country, intermarriage between Tribal Filipinos and lowland Filipinos and, as suggested above, the length of residence of at least some "lowland" Filipinos in hinterland areas are factors confounding efforts to specify unambiguously who is and who is not an "indigenous Filipino." INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND ANCESTRAL LANDS The problems surrounding indigenous peoples and access to land in the Philippines ultimately derive from the following historical circumstance; since the early Spanish colonial period, all forest lands have legally belonged to the state, and most indigenous peoples have long inhabited the forest. For control over this land, indigenous people have long faced a sort of "double battle," both with the state itself, from which they must attempt to wrest some sort of security of tenure or access, and with often-migrant and usually better-off and more politically-influential lowland Filipinos, who have also over the years attempted to secure titles or other kinds of access to public lands, often displacing indigenous peoples in the process.

As indigenous peoples have retreated in the face of incremental land alienation of the latter sort, they have increasingly occupied the uplands, where the great majority of Tribal Filipinos live today. Present government policy is that all land over 18 degrees slope and with or without trees is "public forest land," not alienable and disposable, and hence falls under the jurisdiction of the Forest Management Bureau (FMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The traditional role of this agency was long to preserve the forest for timber production and hence to protect it from human occupancy and use; indeed, until now, the up to 18 million residents, indigenous or otherwise, that currently inhabit the uplands are still often referred to us "squatters." But during the 1970s, with assistance from universities and other private and government agencies, the Forest Management Bureau (then known as the Bureau of Forest Development), initiated a number of programs designed to settle upland occupants on their current landholdings while simultaneously enlisting their cooperation in adopting agroforestry and other soil and water conservation measures. Since 1972, these various programs have been reorganized into an Integrated Social Forestry Program (ISFP) administered by the DENR. The ISFP is still evolving, but the underlying philosophy remains that supportive rather than punitive efforts to deal with forest residents will lead to less environmentally damaging farming systems. Presently, indigenous peoples hoping to secure ancestral lands face a sometimes confusing range of policies and instruments growing out of social forestry policies. Under the ISFP itself there are two principal tenurial choices: the individual Certificate of Stewardship Contract (CFC) and the Communal Forest Stewardship Agreement (CFSA), each entailing a 25-year renewable lease right to occupy and use a designated parcel of forest land, in return for a commitment to environmentally-sound management. The CFSA arrangement was primarily intended for indigenous peoples, and, since about 1980s, when, in a now well-known case, the Ikalahan of northern Luzon succeeded in securing the first such CFSA in the Philippines, about fifty such communal leases have been granted nationwide. More recent are two DENR administrative orders authorizing, in 1991, Certificates of Ancestral Land Claims (CALC) and, in 1993, Certificates of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADC). By July 1993 about 20-25 CALCs had been awarded nationwide, primarily in Mindoro, Palawan, and the Cordillera. Also by 1993, several shortcomings with the CALC program had surfaced: it lacked needed management support services, failed to address the presence of previously-awarded non-timber forest products (NTFP) concessions over which CALC holders had no authority, and indigenous peoples had come increasingly to feel that the emphasis on land alone was too limiting. The new CADC program was designed to address these issues; "domain," for example, is explicitly a larger notion than "land", and there are provisions that existing NTFP concessions will not be renewed as they expire, but will instead be turned over to the CADC holders. From the standpoint of indigenous peoples, however, all of these various programs are inadequate, halfway measures that fail to offer ownership, and hence true control, over ancestral domains. Still pending in the Philippine Congress is a bill that would redeem such a pledge, in fact made under the 1987 Philippine Constitution. The "Ancestral Domains Bill," as it is generally called, would provide the equivalent of the (most indigenous peoples today reside on public land that is not "alienable and disposable") and is much lobbied for by indigenous peoples and their NGO allies.

Meanwhile, and quite apart from its philosophical acceptability to indigenous peoples, the recent CADC program poses some significant difficulties of its own. A CADC application requires a detailed management plan, which in turn requires an interested Indigenous Cultural Community (ICC) to obtain appropriate technical assistance; and it requires as supporting evidence of a claim such items as established tree crops and burial sites - evidence that not all ICCs otherwise entitled to such claims may be able to provide. Further, there remains disagreement among government officials and NGO personnel about whether a CADC is in fact a tenurial instrument or is simply "recognition of a right." Finally, as of July 1993, no CADCs had actually yet been awarded. Nonetheless, until the Ancestral Domains Bill passes Congress, the principal NGOs involved in the ancestral domains movement - including the Legal Rights and Natural Resource Center (LRC), PANLIPI (an organization of law years that provides legal assistance to ICCs), and the Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID) - believe that seeking a CADC is the best currently available option for indigenous peoples attempting to secure their ancestral to mains. Not surprisingly, however, given their own differing circumstances, the people of indigenous communities differ in their willingness to accept one or another concept of stewardship rather than outright ownership (i.e., full titling). Garrity et al observe that the ICCs that to date have been able to maintain secure control of their land, such as some Cordilleran peoples, fear that acceptance of any sort of stewardship agreement will mean that they must forfeit their claim to ownership, while those ICCs that have been under strong encroachment pressure from lowland settlers or agribusiness operations, or that have even been displaced from their lands, are more likely to regard stewardship or lease agreements as the best practical means to maintain some territorial integrity. The current emphasis on ancestral domains rather than ancestral lands reminds us that more is at stake than simply the need of indigenous people to make a current agricultural living. The notion of "domain" is meant to embrace those additional ancestral lands not currently occupied or farmed, but which represent a reserve for the future and over which there is in fact an ancestral claim. Also, collection and sale of such forest products as rattan and manila copal (almaciga) are vital subsistence activities for many indigenous peoples, and there is considerable feeling today that any land tenure arrangements are incomplete until full rights to exploit these resources - traditionally in the hands of outside capitalists - are consigned over to ICCs as well. This movement has gained momentum as such international environmentalist NGOs as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have embraced and promoted the notion that indigenous peoples are the best conservers of forest biodiversity. At another level, the emphasis on ancestral domains reflects recognition of and concern about the effects of armed conflict in the Philippines on indigenous peoples, who have suffered disproportionately as the result of violent confrontations between government forces and members of the New Peoples Army (NPA) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). A recent wire service report is illustrative of this problem. Reuters, Iligan, Sept 17-More thanh 3000 tribesmen fled on Friday after air-force planes bombed a heavily forested area in the south suspected of being a communist rebel meeting place, officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties following the attack in the town of Kiktaotao in Bukidnon province about 890 m (55 miles) south of Manila. Army officials said they received reports that communist rebel leaders would hold a meeting in the area. Relief officials rushed supplies of food, milk and clothes

for the fleeing tribesmen. Local government officials condemned the military for allegedly bombing the wrong area. Such problems have received particular attention from the Episcopal Commission on Tribal Filipinos (ECTF), which has made the peace process a principal concern in its own work on behalf of indigenous peoples. The ECTF estimates that in 1991, for example, 70 percent of those displaced by armed aggression in Mindanao, and 50 percent of those so displaced in Luzon, were indigenous peoples. Among the most severely affected regions were the Marag Valley and the Zibundungan Valley in Cagayan, the Andap Valley in Surigao del Sur, and the Subanun homeland in Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur (ECTF 1993). The ECTF argues, at least implicitly, that freedom from armed conflict and displacement is also an important human right of indigenous peoples, and they believe and assurances of such freedom must be built into any satisfactory recognition of ancestral domains. Similar calls to stop militarization and to expose military abuses, are still heard regularly from various Cordilleran peoples groups. Meanwhile, and until ancestral domains are genuinely secured against economic and military threats from outsiders, such problems will persist. In a sort of Cordilleran echo of the "Visayan Vignette" with which this article began, here is how Victoria Corpuz, of the Cordillera Women's Education and Resource Center and the Cordillera Peoples' Alliance (CPA), recently responded to a question about the main concerns of the peoples of the Cordillera today: Our main concerns are still basically the same.... Our region has always been considered a resource base area by the government.... The biggest and oldest mining company in the Philippines, the Benguet Corporation... suddenly decided that it... will convert its operations into open-pit mining. This is devastating the whole area. Mountains are being bulldozed. So now the people in those villages that are affected are opposing the whole projec...setting up barricades to stop the operations of the open-pit mines. There is a stalemate now...(but) I think they are really bent on pushing through with their plans.... (A) more complicated problem affecting the whole region is the militarization...coming along with the minning and logging operations. Right now the area is targeted as one of the areas for comprehensive counterinsurgency operations. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND SELF-DETERMINATION Whereas the issue of ancestral lands concerns all ICCs in the country, the issue of autonomy - that other area of Tribal Filipino concern expressly addressed in the 1987 Constitution - has so far concerned only the largest and most populous of these communities (Claver 1992:10). And yet the two issues are closely related; NGOs like the LRC and the Cordillera Resource Center (CRC), for example, seek not only full recognition of ancestral land boundaries but also of customary land management practices and the indigenous political forms within which they are embedded. The Constitution adopted in 1987 provided for politically autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordillera, then two regions perceived as having requested such autonomy, Muslim Mindanao by virtue of the Tripoli Agreement, and the Cordillera by virtue of the CPA's lobbying effort (Rood 1991:519). In each case the rationale for autonomy was the alleged sharing of "common and distinctive historical and cultural heritage, economic and social structure, and other relevant characteristics" (Rood 1991:519). In the case of the Cordillera, the Philippine Congress passed an "Organic Act" which was put to a referendum in the

region in January 1990. The referendum was defeated in four of the five relevant provinces and Baguio City, and only passed in Ifugao. This is not the place the review the historical, political, or cultural context of this Act, or the reasons for its defeat. Two observations, however, are appropriate here. First, the degree to which an emerging Cordilleran ethnic identity is a viable basis for any sort of regional "autonomy" remains problematic (Rood 1991:541-2). Second and more important, the Organic Act itself was, in the views of many indigenous advocates of Cordilleran autonomy, seriously deficient, so much so that some of those who earlier called for an autonomous region ultimately voted "no" in the referendum (Rood 1991:542). Hence, despite subsequent government claims to the contrary, the result-of the referendum was a repudiation of the government's concept of autonomy - seen as not being "genuine" - rather than the concept of autonomy itself (Claver 1992:4;ECTF 1993:6). The future of the entire movement presently remains unclear. The reaction of the Mindanao Lumad to the Philippine National Oil Company's (PNOC) proposed construction of the Mount Apo Geothermal Plant illustrates how religious issues may help galvanize Tribal Filipino opposition to outside oppression. A dormant volcano with an area of 73,000 hectares, Mount Apo is the ancestral domain of 460,000 Lumads, including Bagobos, Ubos, Aetas, K'lagan, and Kaulos. For the Lumads, Mount Apo is "Apo Sandawa," or "Lord Standing and Watching Over Mindanao" (ECTF 1993:4), which has provided Lumads with their livelihood since the beginning of time. A number of sites on the slopes of the mountain posses religious significance for various Lumad groups. PNOC first conducted exploratory drilling in Mount Apo in 1987. The project was shelved in 1990, following a critical reassessment by DENR, but it was resurrected again in 1992 in the midst of a national power crisis, with the explicit support of Philippine President Fidel Ramos. A now familiar pattern of militarization has ensued, as PNOC lobbied for the assignment of five battalions of soldiers to secure the job site and is alleged to be behind the formation of a paramilitary group, "Mindanao Defenders," composed of Lumad members (ECTF 1993:4-5). CONCLUSION It should be clear from these observations that the restoration of a more democratic political system in the Philippines has not in itself significantly improved the human rights circumstances of indigenous Filipinos. Such improvement as has occurred instead reflects the organizational efforts and plain hard work of indigenous Filipinos and those who work on their behalf. On the other hand, the Philippine case is made unique both by the presence of good laws already on the books that in fact empower people (including indigenous people), and by the level of sophistication in government and public discussion about the significance of ancestraldomain rights of development and environmental issues. If there is good news as about the Philipplines, it is that the current political climate does appear more receptive to, or at least more tolerant of, those seeking to act on these relatively congenial circumstances to improve the human rights conditions of indigenous Filipinos. Article copyright Cultural Survival, Inc.

Ancestral Lands and Domains, Indigenous Peoples, and Other Juridical Fictions
Every nation has its creation myths... Angela Stuart Santiago answers a number of questions I posed on her blog: Why are Tagalogs, Pampangos, Cebuanos, Ilokanos not considered to be indigenous peoples of the Philippines? Why dont they deserve an ancestral homeland just like the Muslim Bangsamoro? Is it because they are Christian?? it is because the tagalogs pampangos cebuanos ilokanos largely went along with and were therefore accommodated by the colonizers, unlike the moros of mindanao who through spanish times never stopped fighting the invaders and mostly kept them away from mindanao. however the moros were no match militarily for the americans who also treated them differently, no americanization ekek as in luzon and the visayas, and so they didnt know what torrens titles were about, and next thing they knew their lands were no longer theirs, titled instead to settlers from luzon and visayas, and americans and multinationals of course. so yes the moros were marginalized like other indigenous communities. if they are even more of a minority in mindanao now compared to the lumads, its because theyve been leaving mindanao and looking for better lives in luzon and visayas and yes the milf represents but one faction of the moro people, and the mnlf represents another, and there are unrepresented factions, and yes they are as divided as we christians are but the dream of a bangsamoro homeland lives on, something they deserve that government has tried to deny them time and again by trying to wipe them out. so this a good thing that government is finally willing to make concessions, a step in the right direction, even if malayo pa ang landas na tatahakin on both sides. I am more than ever convinced that at the heart of the Gordian Knot that is Mindanao are unexamined Guilt Trips and several different Fairy Tales for adults, much of it abetted by Supreme Court decisions and the constant repetition of Politically Correct mantras in the Mass Media and now the blogosphere. To me it is enough of a mind-bender that the vast majority of Filipinos are not to be considered "indigenous peoples" of the Archipelago because their ancestorsconverted to the Roman Catholic religion. I should immediately point out by the way that there are substantial and material implications to whether one is considered an indigenous person in the Philippines. as enunciated by Justice Reynato Puno:

"Ancestral domains and ancestral lands are the private property of indigenous peoples and do not constitute part of the land of the public domain." The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 or the IPRA Law, survived a challenge to its Constitutionality in the Supreme Court of the Republic of the Philippines (SCORP) by a controversial 7-7 decision on December 6, 2000 in the landmark case of CRUZ and EUROPA versus INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. The Rules of SCORP allowed IPRA to pass by the smallest margin allowed: zero votes in a dead heat tie. (But does anyone remember WHY the Supreme Court was missing a fifteenth member in December, 2000?) En passant, this decision does not prevent future cases assailing the Constitutionality of the IPRA Law, but several general principles and battle lines may have been established that will be important in the attempts of Malacanang Palace to sign yet another "FINAL Peace Agreement" in Mindanao. JUSTICE REYNATO PUNO wrote a highly detailed treatise (over a hundred pages) presenting the case for the seven prevailing justices, which also reveals the Guilt Trip at the heart of the Gordian Knot that is Mindanao: J. Puno: "When Congress enacted the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), it introduced radical concepts into the Philippine legal system which appear to collide with settled constitutional and jural precepts on state ownership of land and other natural resources. The sense and subtleties of this law cannot be appreciated without considering its distinct sociology and the labyrinths of its history. This Opinion attempts to interpret IPRA by discovering its soul shrouded by the mist of our history. After all, the IPRA was enacted by Congress not only to fulfill the constitutional mandate of protecting the indigenous cultural communities' right to their ancestral land but more importantly, to correct a grave historical injustice to our indigenous people." On the other hand, the seven other Members of SCORP who thought IPRA unconstitutional, were represented in the Separate Concurring and Dissenting Opinion of Justice Artemio V. Panganiban.
Protection of Indigenous Peoples Rights Must Be Within the Constitutional Framework

With due respect, however, I dissent from the ponencias resolution of the two main substantive issues, which constitute the core of this case. Specifically, I submit that Republic Act (RA) No. 8371, otherwise known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997, violates and contravenes the Constitution of the Philippines insofar as -1. It recognizes or, worse, grants rights of ownership over lands of the public domain, waters, x x x and other natural resources which, under Section 2, Article XII of the Constitution, are owned by the State and shall not be alienated. I respectfully reject the contention that ancestral lands and ancestral domains are not public lands and have never been owned by the State. Such sweeping statement places substantial portions of Philippine territory outside the scope of the Philippine Constitution and beyond the collective reach of the Filipino people. As will be discussed later, these real properties

constitute a third of the entire Philippine territory; and the resources, 80 percent of the nation's natural wealth. 2. It defeats, dilutes or lessens the authority of the State to oversee the exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources, which the Constitution expressly requires to be under the full control and supervision of the State. True, our fundamental law mandates the protection of the indigenous cultural communities right to their ancestral lands, but such mandate is "subject to the provisions of this Constitution."[4] I concede that indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples (ICCs/IPs) may be accorded preferential rights to the beneficial use of public domains, as well as priority in the exploration, development and utilization of natural resources. Such privileges, however, must be subject to the fundamental law. Consistent with the social justice principle of giving more in law to those who have less in life, Congress in its wisdom may grant preferences and prerogatives to our marginalized brothers and sisters, subject to the irreducible caveat that the Constitution must be respected. I personally believe in according every benefit to the poor, the oppressed and the disadvantaged, in order to empower them to equally enjoy the blessings of nationhood. I cannot, however, agree to legitimize perpetual inequality of access to the nation's wealth or to stamp the Court's imprimatur on a law that offends and degrades the repository of the very authority of this Court -- the Constitution of the Philippines.

An important question that arises is: WHO ARE THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES? Fortunately, the IPRA law states exactly who the indigenous peoples of the Philippines are by presenting a succinct list: Presently, Philippine indigenous peoples inhabit the interiors and mountains of Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Samar, Leyte, and the Palawan and Sulu group of islands.They are composed of 110 tribes and are as follows: 1. In the Cordillera Autonomous Region-- Kankaney, Ibaloi, Bontoc, Tinggian or Itneg, Ifugao, Kalinga, Yapayao, Aeta or Agta or Pugot, and Bago of Ilocos Norte and Pangasinan; Ibanag of Isabela, Cagayan; Ilongot of Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya; Gaddang of Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Itawis of Cagayan; Ivatan of Batanes, Aeta of Cagayan, Quirino and Isabela. 2. In Region III-- Aetas. 3. In Region IV-- Dumagats of Aurora, Rizal; Remontado of Aurora, Rizal, Quezon; Alangan or Mangyan, Batangan, Buid or Buhid, Hanunuo and Iraya of Oriental and Occidental

Mindoro; Tadyawan of Occidental Mindoro; Cuyonon, Palawanon, Tagbanua and Tao't bato of Palawan. 4. In Region V-- Aeta of Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur; Aeta-Abiyan, Isarog, and Kabihug of Camarines Norte; Agta, and Mayon of Camarines Sur; Itom of Albay, Cimaron of Sorsogon; and the Pullon of Masbate and CamarinesSur. 5. In Region VI-- Ati of Negros Occidental, Iloilo and Antique, Capiz; the Magahat of Negros Occidental; the Corolano and Sulod. 6. In Region VII-- Magahat of Negros Oriental and Eskaya of Bohol. 7. In Region IX-- the Badjao numbering about 192,000 in Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga del Sur; the Kalibugan of Basilan, the Samal, Subanon and Yakat. 8. Region X-- Numbering 1.6 million in Region X alone, the IPs are: the Banwaon, Bukidnon, Matigsalog, Talaanding of Bukidnon; the Camiguin of Camiguin Island; the Higaunon of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon and Misamis Occidental; the Tigwahanon of Agusan del Sur, Misamis Oriental and and Misamis Occidental, the Manobo of the Agusan provinces, and the Umayamnon of Agusan and Bukidnon. 9. In Region XI-- There are about 1,774,065 IPs in Region XI. They are tribes of the Dibabaon, Mansaka of Davao del Norte; B'laan, Kalagan, Langilad, T'boli and Talaingod of Davao del Sur; Mamamanua of Surigao del Sur; Mandaya of the Surigao provinces and Davao Oriental; Manobo Blit of South Cotabato; the Mangguangon of Davao and South Cotabato; Matigsalog of Davao del Norte and Del Sur; Tagakaolo, Tasaday and Ubo of South Cotabato; and Bagobo of Davao del sur and South Cotabato. 10. In Region XII-- Ilianen, Tiruray, Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausug,

Please note that the NON-INDIGENOUS peoples of the Philippines, according to this Supreme Court decision are all the CHRISTIAN Filipinos, for example, the Ilocanos, Pampangos, Tagalogs, Cebuanos, and all of the Visayans who converted to Roman Catholicism in the 16th, 17th and 18 centuries. ALL 110 officially designated Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines are for nominally nonChristian minorities (although Cordillera IPs were converted in large numbers to Protestant churches during the 20th and 21st centuries). NONE of the 110 officially designated Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines come from its nominally Catholic majority populations and ethnic groups, because the qualification required of our ancestors so that some of us are now designated as "indigenous peoples" with private property rights over ancestral lands and domains, is that those ancestors of ours successfully resisted Spanish colonialization.

The officially designated IPs are all deemed to own "by native title" ancestral lands and domains, which their descendants now own. But the NON-IPs have no such lands or rights. The difference is whether the ancestors of any given living ethnic group succumbed to Western colonialism and became Catholics or not. Those that "resisted colonialism" and did not become Catholics are the "Indigenous Peoples". Those that did have none of the rights now given to the IPs. But it cannot be denied historically that many of the designated IPs also succumbed to colonialism and forced religious conversion. When Islam came, it was no different from when Christianity came...by the Sword and the Cross, or the Kris and the Crescent...soldiers and missionaries. But as long as the invaders were NOT Western, that group could still be considered an Indigenous People. That is how the Supreme Court crumbles the cookie. Basically, ALL the Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines are those that supposedly did not succumb to Western Imperialism (such as the slave-raiding slave-trading Maguindanao and Sulu Confederacies that regularly invaded and pillaged the Visayas for centuries of certain Golden Age.)

Primer on Ancestral Lands and Ancestral Domains


Published by Atty. Fred August 14th, 2008 in Elections and Constitutional Law.2 Comments

7Share One of the bigger issues for the past couple of days is the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Ancestral Domain (for the Bangsamoro People in certain parts of Mindanao) between the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court assailing the validity of the MOA, so we could not really discuss it. Lets have a general discussion on ancestral lands and ancestral domains. Is there a Constitutional basis for ancestral domains? Yes. Section 5 of Article XII of the Constitution provides: The State, subject to the provisions of this Constitution and national development policies and programs, shall protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral lands to ensure their economic, social, and cultural well-being. The Congress may provide for the applicability of customary laws governing property rights or relations in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domain. Is there any law which covers ancestral domains? Yes. Under Republic Act No. 8371, also known as The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, the State recognizes and promotes certain rights of Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) within the framework of the Constitution. What is Ancestral Domain? It refers to all areas generally belonging to ICCs/IPs comprising lands, inland waters, coastal areas, and natural resources therein, held under a claim of ownership, occupied or possessed by ICCs/IPs, by themselves or through their ancestors, communally or individually since time immemorial, continuously to the present except when interrupted by war, force majeure or displacement by force, deceit, stealth or as a consequence of government projects or any other voluntary dealings entered into by government and private individuals/corporations, and which are necessary to ensure their economic, social and cultural welfare. It shall include ancestral lands, forests, pasture, residential, agricultural, and other lands individually owned whether alienable and

disposable or otherwise, hunting grounds, burial grounds, worship areas, bodies of water, mineral and other natural resources, and lands which may no longer be exclusively occupied by ICCs/IPs but from which they traditionally had access to for their subsistence and traditional activities, particularly the home ranges of ICCs/IPs who are still nomadic and/or shifting cultivators. It is subject to property rights within the ancestral domains already existing and/or vested upon effectivity of R.A. 8371. What is Ancestral Land? It refers to land occupied, possessed and utilized by individuals, families and clans who are members of the ICCs/IPs since time immemorial, by themselves or through their predecessors-in-interest, under claims of individual or traditional group ownership, continuously, to the present except when interrupted by war, force majeure or displacement by force, deceit, stealth, or as a consequence of government projects and other voluntary dealings entered into by government and private individuals/corporations, including, but not limited to, residential lots, rice terraces or paddies, private forests, swidden farms and tree lots. It is also subject to property rights within the ancestral domains already existing and/or vested upon effectivity of R.A. 8371. What are the rights to Ancestral Domain? Certain rights of ownership and possession of ICCs/IPs to their ancestral domains are recognized and protected, including the right: 1. Of ownership. This includes lands, bodies of water traditionally and actually occupied by ICCs/IPs, sacred places, traditional hunting and fishing grounds, and all improvements made by them at any time within the domains. 2. To develop, control and use lands and natural resources. This includes the right to negotiate the terms and conditions for the exploration of natural resources in the areas for the purpose of ensuring ecological, environmental protection and the conservation measures, pursuant to national and customary laws. 3. To stay in the territories. No ICCs/IPs will be relocated without their free and prior informed consent, nor through any means other than eminent domain. 4. To regulate entry of migrants. ICCs/IPs have the right to regulate the entry of migrant settlers and organizations into the domains.

5. To claim parts of ancestral domains previously reserved for various purposes, except those reserved and intended for common and public welfare and service. 6. To resolve land conflicts in accordance primarily with customary law. Who has priority over natural resources within ancestral domains? The ICCs/IPs shall have priority rights in the harvesting, extraction, development or exploitation of any natural resources within the ancestral domains. A non-member of the ICCs/IPs concerned may be allowed to take part in the development and utilization of the natural resources for a period of not exceeding twenty-five (25) years renewable for not more than twenty-five (25) years, provided that a formal and written agreement is entered into with the ICCs/IPs concerned or that the community, pursuant to its own decision making process, has agreed to allow such operation. Do the ICCs/IPs have the righ to self-governance? Yes. ICCs/IPs have the inherent right to selfgovernance and self-determination. The State respects the integrity of their values, practices and institutions. The State shall guarantee the right of ICCs/IPs to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. The ICCs/IPs shall have the right to use their own commonly accepted justice systems, conflict resolution institutions, peace building processes or mechanisms and other customary laws and practices within their respective communities and as be compatible with the national legal system and with internationally recognized human rights. Are lands lands certified to be ancestral domains covered by real estate taxes? These lands are exempt from real property taxes, special levies, and other forms of exaction except such portion of the ancestral domains as are actually used for large-scale agriculture, commercial forest plantation and residential purposes or upon titling by private persons. What are the applicable laws? Customary laws, traditions and practices of the ICCs/IPs of the land where the conflict arises shall be applied first with respect to property rights, claims and ownerships, hereditary succession and settlement of land disputes. Any doubt or ambiguity in the application and interpretation of laws shall be resolved in favor of the ICCs/IPs. What is the process of delineation of ancestral domains? The identification and delineation of ancestral domains shall be done in accordance with the following general procedure:

a. Petition for delineation. The process of delineating a specific perimeter may be initiated by the National Commission on Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) with the consent of the ICC/IP concerned, or through a Petition for Delineation filed with the NCIP, by a majority of the members of the ICCs/IPs. b. Delineation proper. The official delineation of ancestral domain boundaries including census of all community members therein, shall be immediately undertaken by the Ancestral Domains Office upon filing of the application by the ICCs/IPs concerned. c. Preparation of maps. On the basis of such investigation and the findings of fact based thereon, the Ancestral Domains Office of the NCIP shall prepare a perimeter map, complete with technical descriptions, and a description of the natural features and landmarks embraced therein. d. Report of investigation and other documents. A complete copy of the preliminary census and a report of investigation, shall be prepared by the Ancestral Domains Office of the NCIP. e. Notice and publication. A copy of each document, including a translation in the native language of the ICCs/IPs concerned shall be posted in a prominent place therein for at least 15 days. A copy of the document shall also be posted at the local, provincial and regional offices of the NCIP, and shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation once a week for 2 consecutive weeks to allow other claimants to file opposition thereto within 15 days from date of such publication. In areas where no such newspaper exists, broadcasting in a radio station will be a valid substitute. Mere posting shall be deemed sufficient if both newspaper and radio station are not available. f. Endorsement to NCIP. Within 15 days from publication, and of the inspection process, the Ancestral Domains Office shall prepare a report to the NCIP endorsing a favorable action upon a claim that is deemed to have sufficient proof. However, if the proof is deemed insufficient, the Ancestral Domains Office shall require the submission of additional evidence. The Ancestral Domains Office shall reject any claim that is deemed patently false or fraudulent after inspection and verification. g. Issuance of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT). ICCs/IPs whose ancestral domains have been officially delineated and determined by the NCIP shall be issued a CADT in the name of the community concerned, containing a list of all those identified in the census.

h. Registration of CADTs. The NCIP shall register issued certificates of ancestral domain titles and certificates of ancestral lands titles before the Register of Deeds in the place where the property is situated. What are not covered by this process? The delineanation process shall not apply to ancestral domains/lands already delineated according to DENR Administrative Order No. 2, series of 1993, nor to ancestral lands and domains delineated under any other community/ancestral domain program prior to the enactment of R.A. 8371. ICCs/IPs whose ancestral lands/ domains were officially delineated prior to the enactment of the law shall have the right to apply for the issuance of a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) over the area without going through the process.

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