‘Native Title’ Day

 

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- Just like all the rest of the special days that we commemorate, February 23 that would be 116 years by next Sunday, cannot be moved and should not be moved just to accommodate events and whims of politicians and their lap dogs.

February 23, 1909 was not founded nor invented for the sake of holding events such as the celebrations being held in the city in the same month. It was the day when Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. of the United States Supreme Court swung his gavel to lay down a landmark ruling acknowledging the “Native Title”.

Justice Holmes ruled that “lands that were originally occupied in private capacity since time immemorial never became public lands.” The Baguio area has never been “public” as there were Ibaloy occupants even prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, later the Americans.

The central figure in the USA SC ruling was Mateo Cariño, the Ibaloy chieftain who sued the American government in the early 1900s for occupying his land illegally and deceptively. He fought for his land where John Hay was established, all the way to the higher courts.

He won his case in court that led to the recognition of the “Native Title”. He won without seeing the fruit of his fight. The Native Title ruling, a.k.a. Cariño Doctrine, stated that lands in Baguio held since time immemorial by the Ibaloys are private lands.

 Thus, on February 23, 2025 or 116 years after the ruling, the Ibaloys would gather at the Ibaloy Heritage Garden at the Western section of Burnham Park to hold a simple commemoration of the day when Mateo Cariño won his land case.

On that day, Ibaloys would assemble to remind themselves of the struggles that their ancestors had to go through even prior to the appointment of outspoken leader Mateo Cariño as the Ibaloy headman of Kafagway.

But the annual celebration would be like any ordinary fiesta unless it is explained to the crowd that the day commemorates the time the US Supreme Court through Justice Holmes in 1909 ruled and recognized the land rights of Ibaloy headman Mateo Cariño over what is now known as Camp John Hay. 

Every Ibaloy who is aware of this has the obligation to inform those who do not know the reasons for the celebration. It is also for this reason that the annual gathering was called “Onjon” Ni Ivadoy (Reunion of Ibaloys) to unite tribal members for a common cause.

However, the annual event does not anymore function as expected in the first place. Most of those who attend no longer engage in discussing strategies and help correct the injustices on ancestral lands, and strengthen Mateo Cariño’s Native Title Doctrine.
Mostly, those who come do not share ideas and solutions to issues brought about by the colonial and Philippine government’s takeover of Ibaloy lands under the City Charter. They simply attend to see who is who, partake of the meat, get drunk, be merry and go.

By the way, the Native Title ruling came ahead six months before the Charter of Baguio was issued on September 1, 1909. That means, the American colonizers disregarded Justice Holmes’ ruling and practically grabbed Ibaloy private lands when they issued a charter to take control over lands in Baguio that, according to the US Supreme Court, were never “public”.

 For more than 50 years before the Treaty of Paris on April 11, 1899, Mateo Cariño and his ancestors possessed their land by installing fences for holding farm animals, tilled parts of it and used most of the area for cattle pasture.

In the years 1893, 1894, 1896 and 1897, he made an application but with no avail until he was able to process a possessory title over the land under his name in 1901. Still, even if he had a title, he could not have it registered because the Philippine Commission Act No. 926 of 1903 exempted the Province of Benguet from its operation.

Fast forward, since Cariño’s land was not registered as it had no paper title to show the court in the Philippines, he lost his case. However, he appealed his case to the United States Supreme Court.

Then on February 23, 1909; Justice Holmes declared: “It might perhaps, be proper and sufficient to say that when, as far as testimony or memory goes, the land has been held by individuals under a claim of private ownership, it will be presumed to have been held in the same way from before the Spanish conquest, and never to have been public land.”

This proves that the native title to land or ownership of land by natives in Baguio and the Cordillera by virtue of possession under a claim of ownership existed since time immemorial and exempted from the theory of Jura Regalia or Regalian Doctrine under the Spanish colonizers.

The uniqueness of Baguio is not just its being the cool city of Pines but as the home base of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act or IPRA of 1997, and that it was the haven of the American colonizers in the Cordillera.

 Thus, Baguio is where the Native Title in Cariño vs. Insular Government was defined. The doctrine was applicable not only in the Philippines but in other countries, such as the United States and Australia that adopted it for the rights of their indigenous peoples.

This year, let us see to it that the significance of the event would not get lost in the steps of the tayao, drowned in the flowing liquor, and meat boiling in a large vat.