Cagayan's Agta tribe gets 38,000 hectares of land

By Charlie Lagasca

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – The Agta tribe in northern Cagayan can now officially claim ownership of some 38,000 hectares of lands, which they have long been occupying.

Assistant Secretary Romulo Halabaso of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process turned over the certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) given to the 164 Agta families last Aug. 10.

Ikong Molina, local chieftain of the Agtas, received the CADT, covering 38,508 hectares in Baggao town’s Santa Margarita village.

The population of Cagayan’s Agtas or Agays, also called Dumagats in Isabela or Aetas in other parts of the country, dwindled in the 1980s when many of them succumbed to hunger and disease, believed to be the result of indiscriminate logging and other forms of environmental exploitation.

Halabaso said awarding ownership of ancestral lands is part of the Aquino administration’s commitment to improve the living conditions of indigenous peoples as well as empowering them to decide on their own based on their customs and traditions.