EDITORIAL

Setting policies and solving land disputes

The Cordillera Regional Development Council was reported as having adapted an inter-agency approach involving concerned government agencies and instrumentalities in information, education and communication campaigns on land tenure to resolve policy differences on lands.

The region’s policy-making body said the inter-agency approach involving the departments of Environment and Natural Resources, Agrarian Reform and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples in the conduct of information and education campaign on land tenure instruments has been proven effective as seen in the recently Ifugao land summit in Banaue, Ifugao.

But the RDC said there is a need to synchronize the conduct of advocacy campaign on land titling by the DENR, DAR, NCIP and other government agencies to avoid duplication overlapping of land tenure instrument issuances. The Cordillera is characterized by its being a geographically contiguous ancestral domain area and principally inhabited by indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples which compromise more than 90 percent of its 1.4 million population.

The DENR, DAR and NCIP are issuing land tenure instruments as part of their respective mandates. However, there is confusion among the target beneficiaries on nature, scope and effects of the land tenure instruments considering the Regalian Doctrine, concepts and practices of indigenous land ownership and issuance of certificate of ancestral domain titles (CADTs).

Section 11 of Republic Act 8371 known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 provides the recognition and respect for the native title and issuance of CADT is a recognition of the said title.

The RDC believes the implementation of a synchronized advocacy campaign coupled with the adaption of uniformed rules relative to land tenure instruments would ease the burden of those involved in land conflicts especially in the litigation of their conflicts.

Recently, the DENR and the NCIP are working out the crafting of uniformed rules in the issuance and recognition of land tenure instruments so that the conflicts in the implementation of the related laws will be addressed and corrected to prevent cases from clogging their respective offices in the future.

The DENR deals with the titling of alienable and disposable lands, the DAR issues titles under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and the NCIP deals with the concerns of indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples.

According to the RDC, concerned government agencies and instrumentalities must adapt the necessary administrative proceedings in their respective offices to settle the expected conflicts that would arise from the varied issuance of titles to prevent the mushrooming of cases related to land tenure instruments issued by the different agencies.

The RDC can start from itself in land policies like in addressing disputes. After all, it is considered the region’s top executive body. As to the need for information campaign, all it has to do is conduct grassroots consultations and inform the media. Placing advertisements is not a bad idea.