NCIP told: Stop ancestral land applications in Baguio

BAGUIO CITY – The House committees on environment and natural resources and cultural communities were asked by Rep. Bernardo M. Vergara to pressure the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples to stop entertaining applications or awards covering government reservations in this city since the same is considered illegal and in violation of the provisions of Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Right Act.

In a privilege speech recently delivered before the House of Representatives, Vergara argued being government reservations, said lands are inalienable and can no longer be disposed of in favor or private individuals like ancestral land claimants.

At the same time, NCIP was urged to stop applications or awards covering lands falling within the Baguio town site reservation, except prior land rights and titles recognized and or acquired through any judicial, administrative or other processes, before November 1997,

These include claims of the 48 original Igorot claimants and additional 285 land claimants in the city as contained in Administrative order No. 55, series of 1954.

Furthermore, the House also ordered the NCIP not to entertain applications or awards covering title lands in the city to give due respect to those who legally acquired their properties.

To better serve the ends of equity for all stakeholders, both in national and local levels, Vergara recommended the congressional intervention to stop “willful and capricious acts of NCIP officials in erroneously issuing ancestral titles to forest and government reservations that pose a serious threat to the city’s state of environment.”

Vergara said it is imperative that Congress “abate the anomalous and irregular acts of the NCIP in indiscriminately issuing ancestral titles covering government reservations to the prejudice of the government and private landowners.”

Section (g) of the IPRA prohibits NCIP from awarding ancestral land titles covering government reservations which have been reserved and intended for common and public welfare and service. Moreover, the same law, which created the NCIP provides a special provision governing Baguio city, namely, Section 89 that mandates that the City of Baguio shall remain governed by its Charter and all lands proclaimed under its town site reservation shall remain as such until otherwise reclassified by appropriate legislation: provided, that prior land rights and titles recognized and or acquired through any judicial, administrative or other processes before the effectivity of the Act shall remain valid: provided, further, that the provision shall not apply to any territory which becomes part of the city after the effectivity of the law.

But Vergara said despite existence of lawful provisions, NCIP officials still insisted in issuing ancestral titles to watershed and forest reservations all over the city, the latest of which was the 23-hectare portion of the Forbes Park reservation, which was titled under the name of an Ibaloi clan.

Worst, he said, the NCIP issued a temporary restraining order undermining a Supreme Court ruling allowing the city government to demolish illegal structures constructed within the Busol watershed, the main source of water of the city, which gave the signal for informal settlers too invade the watershed and pose a seizures threat to the city’s water supply. -- Dexter A. See