By KATHLEEN T. OKUBO
www.nordis.net

Stemming from the 1987 Constitution that recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities, in 1990 the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued a special order number 31 (and SO31A) recognizing the ancestral land rights of indigenous peoples of Baguio City. It was followed by department administrative order number 02, recognizing the ancestral land rights of indigenous peoples of the country.

Thus begun the application and processing for delineation and issuance of a certificate of ancestral land claim and then a certificate of ancestral land title. A community special task force for ancestral lands (CSTFAL) was created to verify and process ancestral land applications filed at the DENR here in the city. Among its members were representatives from the local IP communities and from the claimants themselves.

Of the almost 1000 claims filed in the city the CSTFAL processing reduced the number to some 700, more or less, qualified applications for verification, delineation and titling. Some 250 claims received, at the least, positive reports from the DENR regional office and endorsed to the national office to be processed for the issuance of titles when the National Commission on Indigenous Peoles (NCIP) was created and given the mandate to “protect and promote the interest and well-being of the Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) with due regard to their beliefs, customs, traditions and institutions.”

Continuing to deny justice and further depriving the Ips of Baguio of their rights only recently recognized by the Philippine constitution, political bickerings and gerrymandering topped by administrative problems in the government has however stopped these claims from finishing the government process of identification and titling.

Significant incidents in Baguio were:
The desperate lobbying of some city officials and personalities then to insert section 78 in RA 8371 to the effect of denying there are ancestral lands in Baguio. The Supreme Court (SC) hearing on the constitutionality of RA 8371; the constitutionality of the Mining Act of 1995; the SC legal opinion on the application of IPRA queried by Baguio; the “midnight titles”, and others.
All of these added to the deprivation of the constitutional right to ancestral lands, their culture and domain.

In August 2003, only then did the local NCIP recognize that the ancestral land claims processed and endorsed by the city and regional DENR office were officially turned over to them. Their earlier refusal has caused the loss of documents, and claimants pulling out their files. This only prolonged the historical injustice and frustrated a people’s legitimate right.

Anyway, the ancestral land claim over Forbes Park forest reservation was properly processed, reviewed and given positive endorsement by the DENR under DAO 02, the first, 2nd NCIP commission, and this last commission.
So it received a title approved by the DENR and the NCIP, the government department with the mandate to do so for all lands in the country and the presidential commission with the mandate to “protect and promote the interest and well-being of the Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples”, respectively .

Even if I do not believe the present holders of the title are the rightful owners of that ancestral land on the basis of genealogy and oral history, the process the city government is imposing on this particular land, is to further deprive the city’s Igorots too, and it is wrong.

I still am more curious though of what the real objectives are behind that ombudsman case filed by the city against all the IP commissioners.
They have not really been supportive to IP rights in the city. I am told the semblance of support would only measure up to “for show” or “for the money.

There are many ancestral claims in the city that has passed through the same process and are reeking with political manueverings and greed, depriving the heirs of historically proven and legally documented owners of the simple right to be recognized besides their actual and legal titles.
(Next week: An ancestral land clearing committee solely for Baguio.)# nordis.net