Mayor clarifies stand on ancestral land claims

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the city government respects the claims of ancestral land applicants in the city as long as these are legitimate Igorot claims qualified for disposition as ancestral land under existing laws.

The mayor issued the clarification anew to dispel allegations that the city has waged a blanket tirade against all ancestral land claimants in the city.

The mayor said the city is only after bogus land claims that seek to undermine protected areas like the Forbes Park, Wright Park and others to the detriment of the city and residents.

“We have nothing against ancestral land claims as long as these are legitimate. Of course, we are opposed to false claims as these put the city and the residents’ interest in peril,” the mayor reiterated.

The mayor said legitimate claims are those Igorot claims classified as alienable as ancestral land as per section 78 of Republic Act No. 8371 or the Indigenous People’s Rights Act.

The said section provides a special provision that the city of Baguio “shall remain to be governed by its Charter and all lands proclaimed as part of its townsite reservation shall remain as such until otherwise reclassified by appropriate legislation..”

Section 78 also provides an exemption that “prior land rights and titles recognized and/or acquired through any judicial, administrative or other processes before the effectivity of this Act shall remain valid…” which means that Igorot claims recognized before November 1997, the date of IPRA implementation, are qualified as ancestral claims.

Among those recognized are Igorot ancestral claims screened under Special Administrative Order No. 31 and Dept. Administrative Order No. 02 issued by the Dept. and Environment and Natural Resources.

The mayor said all claims that fall within these circumstances are recognized by the city.

He said however that the city will continue to work to reclaim Forbes Park, Wright Park and other protected areas which were never reclassified as alienable as ancestral claims but were issued Certificates of Ancestral Land Titles (CALTs) by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

The mayor said the city is in fact doing its best to protect and help the legitimate ancestral land claimants.

He clarified that a provision included in the proposed amendment of the Baguio City Charter which seeks to treat legitimate ancestral lands as inalienable or with the same status as private lots was not intended to impair legitimate ancestral land claims.

The mayor clarified that on the contrary, the said provision was included to protect these legitimate claims against other land applications by preventing the processing of any applications over lands covered by ancestral land claims until the ancestral land applications have been denied with finality.

The mayor said that to end the confusion that even led to accusations of the mayor being anti-ancestral land claimants, he will just recommend to the Senate committee on local government which is studying the proposed charter amendment to just remove the said provision.