Baguio ancestral lands tackled in RDC webinars

By Marissa M. Cabato

BAGUIO CITY -- The Cordillera Regional Development Council’s committee on indigenous peoples concerns conducted the first of a 4-part webinar series themed “Understanding ancestral domain” on Oct. 6.
    Almost 1,300 participants all over the country joined live through virtual meeting application and in Facebook streams.
    The webinar series was dubbed “Dad-an tako”, a Kankanaey term for “Our journey.”
    This was the banner program of the CIPC held in observance of Indigenous Peoples Month and 24th commemoration of the IP Rights Act (IPRA) this October.

“Why do we need to discuss ancestral domain after 24 years of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act,?” asked lawyer Atanacio Addog of the Cordillera National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

He said ancestral domain was part of the identity of IPs, and there would be no IPs without it.

Lawyer Arthur Herman of the NCIP presented profiles of 149 identified ancestral domains in the region.

There were seven ADs that have registered Certificates of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), 19 with approved CADTs but still on process for registration with the Registry of Deeds, and 20 undergoing delineation and processing.

The process of delineation for approval of CADTs is tedious and entails cost. Budget constraints is a major challenge thus the very low turnout of approved CADTs over the years.

The recent nullification by the Supreme Court of the Certificates of Ancestral Land Title (CALTs) issued to Ibaloy claimants in Baguio City in the case of Republic vs NCIP, et al was due to the limitation of the power of the NCIP to delineate ancestral domains and ancestral lands (ADs/ALs).

The Commission now is initiating the crafting of special rules for the delineation of CALTs in the City of Baguio that will implement exceptions provided in the SC ruling.

Moreover, the segregation of titled properties inside ancestral domains and ancestral lands contributes to the delay in the registration of CADTs/CALTs as provided under Section 56 of the IPRA.

The policy gaps in the guidelines in the registration process of the Commission and the Land Registration Authority (LRA) remain to be a challenge.

The NCIP is looking at policy dialogues with the LRA for the scrapping of the strict requirement for segregation of titled properties and instead agree on mere annotations in the certificates.

The NCIP also aims to resume and fast track all pending boundary conflict resolutions and continue its partnership with other agencies and private institutions for funding support.

Herman called on the Cordillera RDC to support the AD/AL delineation as one of the priority programs of the Commission on IP land security.

The webinar series was scheduled every Wednesday of October with themes touching on IPs and their rights.