Lawyers look for win-win solution between Benguet farmers, gov’t in land tiff
>> Thursday, March 17, 2022
MANKAYAN, Benguet—The Lawyers for Farmers (LFF) is looking
into a possible win-win situation between vegetable farmers and the national
government administering the Mt. Data National Park in a consultation meeting
held Thursday at the Cabacab Elementary School in Barangay Balili.
Lawyer Richard Kilaan, lead convenor of LFF said, for decades now, the vegetable farmers are still considered squatters in the land they farm, despite them being indigenous people who are original settlers of the land.
They have been gardening these lands for so long a time yet they could not own it, what they presently have are tax declarations and there is fear that they may still yet be displaced in the future.
The Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources in 2016 rejected proposals to reclassify the Mt. Data National Park from its current status as a protected park.
The proposal to downgrade the Mt Data's park status was then recommended by the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) to separate the inhabited portions from the remaining woodland.
Mt. Data was declared as a national park by the American colonial government, through Proclamation No. 634 issued on Oct. 8, 1841.
The PAMB proposal according to records was first discussed in the 2012 Asian Development Bank analysis of the country’s Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Project.
“We will find a possible solution where our indigenous people farming these lands could get a chance to own these farm lands and have them titled under their names while they help protect they park and the remaining forest reserve as it will still be an integral park of the eco-system in farming,” Kilaan said.
“They protect the forest, they protect the water source for their farms,” Kilaan added.
LFF, acting as the legal counsel for the farmers will review past proposals and decisions on the matter and will be filling another proposal for reclassification of the said farmlands.
Lawyer Richard Kilaan, lead convenor of LFF said, for decades now, the vegetable farmers are still considered squatters in the land they farm, despite them being indigenous people who are original settlers of the land.
They have been gardening these lands for so long a time yet they could not own it, what they presently have are tax declarations and there is fear that they may still yet be displaced in the future.
The Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources in 2016 rejected proposals to reclassify the Mt. Data National Park from its current status as a protected park.
The proposal to downgrade the Mt Data's park status was then recommended by the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) to separate the inhabited portions from the remaining woodland.
Mt. Data was declared as a national park by the American colonial government, through Proclamation No. 634 issued on Oct. 8, 1841.
The PAMB proposal according to records was first discussed in the 2012 Asian Development Bank analysis of the country’s Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Project.
“We will find a possible solution where our indigenous people farming these lands could get a chance to own these farm lands and have them titled under their names while they help protect they park and the remaining forest reserve as it will still be an integral park of the eco-system in farming,” Kilaan said.
“They protect the forest, they protect the water source for their farms,” Kilaan added.
LFF, acting as the legal counsel for the farmers will review past proposals and decisions on the matter and will be filling another proposal for reclassification of the said farmlands.
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