Baguio IPs hit BCDA for claiming resource rights

3 MIN READ

By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — Elders of Happy Hallow, an indigenous community here criticized the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) for not recognizing their right over their ancestral domain and using the courts and government agencies to bar them from exercising their rights.

In 2012, BCDA questioned the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) issued to the Happy Hallow folk at the Regional Trial Court in 2006 as it applied for water rights over one of the springs within their domain.

In an interview, Punong Barangay Soriano Palunan said this move is tantamount to denial of their rights as indigenous peoples (IPs) in Happy Hallow, a village located at the outlying area of this city inhabited by the Ibalois and Kalanguyas since time immemorial.

He reiterated that the spring applied for by the BCDA falls with in their domain adding that the case the government owned corporation filed in court is now at the Supreme Court. “They should have asked for our free prior and informed consent (FPC) as mandated by law on any project that affects indigenous communities.

Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) provides that prior to any grant to permit for the disposition, utilization, management and appropriation on any part or portion of their ancestral domain the FPIC of the concerned community is a requisite.

Palunan explained that their spring is among the three springs that BCDA had applied for water rights at the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), the two others are Spring water in Barangays Hillside and Greenwater. He said they already filed their opposition to BCDA’s application with the NWRB.

Happy Hallow folk only learned about BCDA’s application when the NWRB asked them to respond to the application in July 2.

Institutionalized non-recognition of land rights

Geri Diano, a member of the Happy Hallow Indigenous Peoples Organization, pointed out immediately after their CADT was issued in 2010, BCDA already questioned it.

“It seems they are trying to exhaust us in their game on the processes at the different branches of government,” said Diano. He explained that they need to hire lawyers and spend for the expenses on the legal case. He added that apart from the court case they also have to face their protest at the NWRB against BCDA’s water rights application.

Domingo Cubebe, a Happy Hallow elder said instead focus on the segregation of the 14 barangays with Camp John Hay. “Many years have passed and yet our lands were not segregated and given to us,” he lamented.

The 14 barangays, including Happy Hallow, Greenwater and Hillside within the Camp John Hay Reservation are not yet segregated from the reservation up to the present.

From reservation to world tourism area

On October 3, 1903, US Pres. Theodore Roosevelt signed a presidential order which set aside acres of land in the area as military camp and later became Camp John Hay, according to the Movement for Sovereign Philippines. The John Hay area was also claimed by Mateo Cariño which he won in a US court in 1909 in a case known as Cariño vs Insular Government.

The BCDA took over from the Americans the control of the camp after the US Military Bases Agreement treaty with the Philippines was not extended by the Senate on September 16, 1991.

A City Ordinance imposed 19 conditionalities for the development of the camp which include a provision that water to be sourced outside, as the existing springs are being utilized by the barangays. The Movement for Sovereign Philippines, which pushed for an alternative development of the camp in 1990 stated in its studies that there are at least 20 springs in the area.

Meanwhile, BCDA public affairs department head Leilanie Macasaet said, in a media report, that their move is to ensure that the water from the three springs would be protected from contamination and used by majority of the population.

The city government claimed that BCDA owed the city of P 850 million as its share from the rental of the camp by the Camp John Hay Development Corporation. # nordis.net