The mother of autonomy

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- In Baguio and Benguet, for people who have not experienced fighting for land rights, for those who are aware of the harshness in fighting for lands, or for those who understand the rights being fought for but refuse to accept such rights due to personal and other reasons, there is more to what appears on the ground.

History relates that in the days of old, especially in Europe, the fight for land ownership always led to segregation of properties, separation of lands based on tribal affiliations and the birth of new rulers. Indeed, history repeats itself.

In the Philippines, particularly in the Visayas and Tagalog districts in Luzon that were dominated then by Spanish colonizers, lands were owned and subdivided among heirs whose ancestry belonged to the Chinese-Spanish. 

So when you take the road from Manila and travel south to Bicol, Camarines and Sorsogon, you will find not so many houses except in the poblaciones where residential homes are clustered. As you ride the bus on an unpaved national road, you look to your left and see an endless plantation of corn and coconut. On the right side of the road is a plantation of sugarcane as far as the eyes can see.

There are no permanent houses, just temporary shelters for farmers, and so you wonder where the votes of the politicians here come from. Maybe the corn, coconuts and sugarcane vote in these parts. These lands are owned by one, two or three families only.

In an imposing corner of the poblacion, one finds an old mansion that looks like a haunted house in the movies that is occupied by a family of caretakers. The family members fix the garden, make sure that the antique furniture are dust-free, wash and wax the Oldsmobile, Mercedes Benz and sports cars day after day, for fear that the bosses might suddenly appear in the gate, from their condominium in Manila.

This is still the scenario today. The heirs of the colonizers and Padre Damaso became the owners of lands that the landless revolutionaries thought they would own after the smoke in the battlefront disappeared in thin air.

In the Cordillera, land ownership is on a case to case basis. Although Christianity was established even in the farthest corners of this mountain region, the Spaniards and American colonizers failed to impose their system of land ownership on indigenous communities. Mountain natives that the colonizers called Igorots possessed a distinct system of landownership.

There were distinct systems practiced by respective indigenous groupings that included protection of land resources such as forest and river products, and had their own unwritten laws and penalties for violators. The region actually consisted of different tribal communities that similarly practiced autonomy.

In Benguet, the case is different.

Landownership was disturbed with the development of the goldmines and the construction of the hydro-electric dams along the Agno River that primarily served the power needs of businessmen, industrial factories and the government in Manila and the lowlands. With the electric project, thousands of hectares of lands were submerged; thousands of Ibaloi families in Kabayan, Bokod, Atok and Itogon were dispersed. Most of all, their dreams were shattered. And nothing was promised in return.

What a giveaway. The Benguet case became an alarm bell for tribal communities in Mt. Province and Kalinga that had been drawing sustenance from the Chico River that was then about to be dammed by the government in the late 70s. The controversy sparked an armed conflict between government and tribal communities.  

In Baguio, land management by the Ibalois was disturbed by government. When the Americans still ruled the country, they crafted laws that allowed their extension offices to occupy Ibaloi lands. These are the agriculture and animal industry offices in Guisad Valley and Mt. Sto. Tomas, the government center, the lands where many public schools now stand, the Busol Forest Reservation, Navy Base, PMA, Camp Allen, and the City Hall area, to name a few.

While these lands were being squatted on by government, all other areas were declared as public lands and were being sold to wealthy and influential outsiders through the controversial Townsite Sales Applications (TSA). Land transfer from the Ibaloi to modern day occupants was non-confrontational. It was more of the Ibaloi’s obedience to “one-sided” laws on one hand, or the smooth talk of speculators on the other hand that made him lose his property that he possessed even before the establishment of a city.

It is at this point that regional autonomy advocates take a deeper look at the causes or reasons why it has not been easy for Cordillerans to unite. I believe it is time that government through its agencies gives back the culture and honor of indigenous peoples that were shattered; respect their land rights and their native title over their lands. In discussing the provisions of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act or IPRA during his stint as senator, Dr. Juan Flaviersaid, “The IP culture is the living and irrefutable proof of their existence and their survival depends on acquiring land rights, asserting their rights to it and depending on it. Otherwise, IPs shall cease to exist as distinct peoples.”

There it is. Indigenous land ownership that goes with control of natural resources is the mother of autonomy. – ozram.666@gmail.com