Cordillera tribes, DENR, NCIP tackle native rules on forest use

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

SAGADA, Mountain Province – In a kitchen cum office “on four wheels,” the task of starting the process in making operational the Joint Administrative Order No. 2008-01 of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) was the trickiest problem for a technical working group.

The joint order calls for the formulation of guidelines and procedures for the recognition, documentation, registration and confirmation of all Sustainable Traditional and Indigenous Forest Resource Management Systems and Practices (STIFRMSP) of indigenous cultural communities or indigenous peoples in ancestral domains and ancestral lands.

The agencies or entities involved are Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs) and Indigenous Peoples Organizations (IPOs) and all stakeholders, LGUs where an indigenous forest practice has been the tradition since time immemorial, all DENR field offices and NCIP provincial and municipal service centers in the Cordillera.

The finished guidelines will cover specific towns in the six provinces namely, Tubo, Bucloc, Boliney and Salapadan in Abra; Calanasan, Pudtol and Cabuyao in Apayao; Bakun and Bokod in Benguet; Asipulo, Kiangan and Hungduan in Ifugao; Tinglayan, Pasil and Balbalan in Kalinga; Tadian, Besao, Sagada, Natonin and Barlig in Mountain Province.

In previous conversations with Forester Rex Sapla who heads the TWG team of STIFRMSP, he related that simply conducting the initial information drive in the communities for the joint order was an undertaking that required extra talent and effort, considering that for a long period, DENR has been perceived as an “antagonist” in the pursuit of a particular tribe’s forest protection practices. Time and again when IPs make use of their forest resources through accepted traditional norms, they are arrested by DENR men and law enforcers who have to carry out penalties on violations of the provisions of PD 705 and other forestry laws. “Umay manen ti DENR nga agtiliw.”   

With the TWG already organized, the next process was to put into writing the different forest management systems that had been in practice for centuries in the Cordillera. Meetings with IPOs and LGUs followed, paving the way to documentation works that required rigorous actual field survey of traditional practices on forest resource management.

Adding “sweetness” to love of work, the team had to pack sleeping bags, tents, a gas stove, pots and pans, and other cooking utensils, lard, coffee, sugar, salt and all, laptops and printers inside their 10-year old Toyota Revo, virtually converting it into a mobile kitchen-office rolled into one. That was the picture of the TWG team primarily composed of Rex, the “all around” documentarian Pat Tayaban and Engr. Simeon Micklay who simply wished to avoid delays in executing the DENR-NCIP agreement.

In 2009, the information drive for IPOs in LGUs was launched by Augusto D. Lagon, Regional Technical Director of the Forest Management Service; PENRO Manuel L. Pogeyed, CENRO Max Macliing, and Foresters MoisesBai and Sapla in Tadian that was partly triggered by Typhoon Peping that severely hit Kayan. Two years later in 2011, the team had finally put on paper the indigenous forest management systems namely, Lapat in Abra and Apayao, Batangan in Mt. Province, Imong in Kalinga, Muyong in Ifugao and Kidjuwan in the Ibaloi areas in Benguet.

In Bakun, the Muyong was documented as a local forest management system that has been practiced in that part of Benguet, basing it on informant town elders’ claims that their ancestors were migrants from Ahin in Tinoc, Ifugao. 

In a recent meeting in Tadian, RTD Lagon and Mayor Wooden came to an understanding that the town’s Batangan system manuscript should be well written so that it could become the model for the other towns.

The accomplishment reports for all traditional practices are expected to be submitted to DENR Sec. Ramon Paje and NCIP Chair Leonor Quintayo for affirmation, after which the documents will be thrown back to the municipalities concerned for them to adopt the verified practices as part of their local ordinances. On the other hand, Paul Lobchoy, National Greening Program and STIFRMSP coordinator mentioned an apprehension that IP stakeholders might have the impression that recognized ancestral domains and the STIFRMSP are ineffective in case local laws on indigenous practices fail when the forest covers in these towns are depleted. Therefore, the documented indigenous forest management systems should be doable and sustainable.

Initially, Governors Denis B. Habawel of Ifugao, Elias Bulut Jr. of Apayao, Leonardo Mayaen of Mt. Province, Eustaquio Bersamin of Abra, Nestor B. Fongwan of Benguet and JocelBaac of Kalinga; Mayors Anthony Wooden of Tadian, Edward Latawan of Sagada and Wellington Pooten of Besao; councilor Eduardo Umaming Jr. of Sagada, and community elders have expressed interest in the manuscripts.

This, even while stakeholders in this town in a recent meeting and survey of resources were engaged in “violent” reactions and discussions with respect to the usage of terminologies such as “operationalization” or “application” on the recognition of the Batangan system as a way of forest management. As I recharged the Nikon camera I borrowed, I talked to myself, “ah, interesado kayo met gayam.”

From Sagada to Mt. Polis, we came by Forester Bonnie Bagawi at Dantay and promised to take pictures of the Patpatayan tree in his backyard. We made the promise to drop by but only after work because Bonnie’s request cannot be rejected. Although the truth is that his invitation reminded me of the Eagle’s statement in the song Hotel California: 

“You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.” – ozram.666@gmail.com