The fight goes on

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

Ancestral lands, particularly in Baguio, is one concern that cannot be left untouched, especially when one comes across facts that have never been revealed before. Parties involved in the ancestral land cases have committed errors that they have to rectify or remedy. This, aside from the fact that certain quarters, city officials and government lawyers included, intentionally avoid discussing the truth about ancestral lands in the city. They tell one thing to the press but their body language tell otherwise.

On the part of the land claimants, many of them have tried to change the history of their family or their genealogy to fit their interest, which is having their land claims processed and approved. Some have gone to the extent of taking documents from the records of offices where the claims were filed since 1990.

In many situations, claimants filed their papers but have not submitted the documents necessary to complete their applications. In other cases, some heirs moved into the ancestral lands of their relatives and sold portions of the land to private individuals. Also, a few have secretly entered agreements with realty subdivision developers who are helping them finance the processing of their ancestral land claims. All these have to be corrected.

In Residence Section “J” somewhere within the Baguio along Marcos Highway, claimants “tapped” or invited paramilitary groups to occupy the lands in exchange for a little money, a shameful move that only served to terrorize other legitimate claimants who are contesting the same property.

Two weeks ago, somebody informed me that illegal settlers in a donated property who apparently were wrongly granted occupancy by a “false relative” of a family land claimant along Marcos Highway, had their shanties demolished by the city. The true owners of the land identified the squatters as belonging to a defunct paramilitary organization that has claimed attachment to an ideology. But to me, not one of them is qualified to being a “rebel with a cause.” They should be included in the list of terrorist groups in the country.

Another issue that provoked opposition from the government is that some land claimants are now reclaiming back lands that have been “donated” by their ancestors in the past, and that are now occupied by government buildings like public schools or churches. Although, I am sure there were also lands that were taken away by government authorities from Ibaloy land owners through deceitful means.

Meanwhile, private and government sectors do not want the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act to succeed. One case in point is the opposition of the city to genuine ancestral land claims that involves the titled properties around the Busol Forest Reservation that have never been included within the town site reservation. These lands were segregated and titled by the Americans who set foot in the city, governed and put in place the laws in the Baguio area. And since these lands were never part of the town site reservation, then town site sales applications should not be entertained by the government.

Not because the titled properties around the Busol area are forested that these are all part of the forest reservation. The American administrators were not stupid to have the Ibaloy lands titled then overlap the same with the proclamation of a forest reservation. Every paper title has its own technical description based on actual ground surveys, so that lands that were surveyed on the ground and proclaimed by the Americans do not overlap each other. This is one fact that government does not want to tell the public.

Retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno said there is no such thing as an irrepealable law. I repeat such line in the wake of court decisions that were issued for cases involving the Busol Forest Reservation that have further confused lawyers, most especially the ancestral land claimants. The fear is that many decisions issued by the Supreme Court are not always right but these become part of the laws of the land, if not corrected.  

In the meantime, Ibaloy descendants of owners of untitled lands in the city whose ancestral land applications were stuck in the process are not growing any younger. Many are leaving us one after the other. Still, nothing has come out of their sacrifices, time and money because of the opposition from people who do not want to obey the IPRA. But then, injustices should be rectified so that the fight must go on.   

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It took only three brave and innocent mountain trekkers namely Francis S. Likigan Jr., Eric S. Tanglib and Christian T. Lasbacan to reveal what has been going on atop Mt. Sto. Tomas. This information was written in the investigation report of the DENR. With the report of the three brave souls that has first reached Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan, it makes the farmer-occupants of the mountain “deaf, mute and blind” for not hearing the earth-moving activities caused by bulldozers and big loaders, for not seeing the three big equipment pass their houses, and for not reporting or talking about what is going on in their premises.

“See nothing, hear nothing and speak nothing.” These were the acts committed by residents on Mt. Sto. Tomas and their barangay officials, as shown by the investigation report written by DENR officials after their attention was called by Gov. Fongwan.Impossible. Were they afraid of something? Or were they warned and told to keep their mouths shut? With the three trekkers’ report to the governor, it makes the barangay officials useless.

The mountain hikers, in their letter to Gov. Fongwan, talked about illegal cutting of trees, arson, road opening by means of massive excavation, dumping of trash and vandalism. The letter was dated April 15, 2014, meaning the illegal earth-moving has been going on for days before the trekkers chanced upon it. Benguet Board Member Jack Dulnuan said, someone has to go to prison for this.