Amidst boundary conflicts:IPs, gov’t officials push CADT for Mt Province

By Gina Dizon

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- Some 200  indigenous people’s leaders representing  barangays and municipalities, indigenous representatives, government officials, and   sectoral  delegates  pushed approval of one Certificate of Ancestral Domain  Title  (CADT) for Mountain Province.

Barlig IP representative  Dionie  Chungalan’s  proposal  came in the midst of a discussion during the April 22 provincial consultation  organized by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples here  on domain delineation in relation to  boundary conflicts.

Chungalan said making of a one CADT for Mountain Province would lay claim to provincial territory.

Boundary conflicts hound titling of ancestral lands and ancestral domains in the Cordillera.  

Among claims for CADT pending approval due to boundary conflicts in Mountain Province are the Tinmakudo CADT of Sabangan, Sadanga CADT, Bayyo, Bontoc CADT and Camatagan, Bauko CADT.  

This, apart from other applications for a certificate of ancestral land title (CALT).

Cordillera regional NCIP commissioner Zenaida Pawid Hamada encouraged the making of a one CADT for Mountain Province delineating the territory and boundaries of the Province saying that other boundary conflicts within are resolved among conflicting parties after the mother title is issued.  

NCIP regional counsel John Ray Libiran said the CADT shall prevent the entrance of other claims within the provincial territory including outside mining claims.

What is unfortunate is that “while conflicting parties are fighting each other, a mining company has already applied for the domain that we are fighting on who owns it,” he said.

In delineating the boundaries of  a CADT, disputed areas shall be treated as versus lots and be eventually resolved  and included as another lot within the approved CADT.  “In delineating the undisputed lots, it does not mean that disputed areas are waived”, Libiran said.  

Mountain Province has pending boundary conflicts with adjoining Sumigar of Ifugao ,Abra, and Benguet.   

The CADT is a title formally recognizing the rights of possession and ownership of indigenous cultural communities or indigenous peoples over their ancestral domains identified and delineated in accordance with the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act.

The ancestral domain covers all areas generally belonging to IPS comprising lands, inland waters, coastal areas, and natural resources therein and includes ancestral land, forests, pasture, residential, agricultural, hunting grounds, burial grounds, worship areas, bodies of water, mineral and other natural resources.

Apart from the CADT and the CALT issued by the NCIP, other titles to lands are issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform in the form of certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) and land patents issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).