PASIL,
Kalinga -- The Balatoc tribe here hailed the National Commission on Indigenous
Peoples (NCIP) for continuously “championing the cause of the indigenous
cultural communities against extra-legal incursions by vested interest.”
Balatoc tribal leader Victor Gumisa was reacting to reports
that the NCIP recently upheld the ownership claim by an Ibaloi family to a
prime property along Session Road in Baguio City that holds Casa Vallejo,
reputedly the oldest hotel in the country’s summer capital.
The NCIP en banc has put on hold implementation of the
Cordillera NCIP’s decision over the Casa Vallejo property.
Speaking in Ilocano, Gumisa cited certain parallelisms in
the Casa Vallejo case and the Batong-buhay mining controversy in Pasil.
The NCIP has ruled that the 2,160-square-meter Casa Vallejo
lot was within the ancestral land of the Acop family which traces its roots to
an ancient Ibaloi settler named Piraso.
In 2010, the NCIP granted the Acop family two certificates
of ancestral land titles (CALTs) that included the Casa Vallejo lot.
The NCIP regional hearing office subsequently issued a writ
allowing the Acops to take possession of the lots covered by their ancestral
land titles.
Gumisa said in similar fashion, NCIP regional hearing
officer Guillermo Kadatar has also upheld his tribe’s contention that their
inherent rights as owners of ancestral land in Pasil were allegedly ignored by
a consortium poised to conduct mining operations within their property.
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