HAPPY WEEKEND
(2nd
part of a series)
Kiltepan
elder and Kagawad Enrique Palsiw appeals, “Idwani ay suluten mi, pangaasi yu
met ah, adalen yu nan wada ay sakripisyo mi ken dakayu ay inmum una ay
nin-adal. Kukua mi sa ay iKiltepan. Nalawag sa. Isunga sika ay mendeclare damet
ilako, ay apo unayen.” (Now that we trace our land, we ask you to
heed our sacrifices, you who first got educated. Kiltepan is our land.
That is clear. So you who declare the land then sell it, lord have mercy).
Palsiw
must be referring to former Mountain Province governor and congressman Alfredo
Lamen having sold a tax-declared lot to businessman Wilson Capuyan who
traces his roots from Sagada. Or he may also be referring to other
iKIltepan as a certain Marcelino Lomiwes who sold some parcels of land to
Lamen or to other individuals.
Where
the land sales done by the Kiltepan people must have been legitimate
leaves questions that Kiltepan people must be questioning their own people who
sold their respective lots. Kiltepan folks said lots sold to some people
of Sagada Poblacion were in parcels small enough to be their own but these lots
expanded to hectares when tax-declared by the buyers.
This
leaves questions of KIltepan people who tax declared big parcels of lots
in hectares and sold to other individuals to mention a certain Marcelino
Lomiwes who sold 23 hectares of tax declared land to Alfredo Lamen.
Tekeng
sacred grounds sold by Maleng-an as noted in legal documents personally told
this writer that he did not sell the questioned lot to Lamen and who further
averred in a case of forcible entry filed by Capuyan against Maleng-an
that he denied the sale thereof.
Now,
are third level land buyers who bought land from second level land tax
declarants. They may be innocent purchasers and have bought land they believe
are sold by legitimate and real owners. This in the case of Capuyan who must
have bought land identified by the seller Lamen.
Apparently,
the fight of the Kiltepan people is not only the Tekeng ritual site
but the whole of Pandey and other surrounding areas
tax-declared by individuals from Sagada Poblacion. So history
attests to the fight of Kiltepan people against individuals in previous court
cases covering nearby areas in sitio Batalao.
Palsiw
continued,”Nan original boundary et id Nangonogan. |The original boundary
of Kiltepan
(Antadao
from Poblacion Patay) is Nangonogan|.
Other
portions of nearby Nangonogan at sitio Dummao and Batalaw within the
ancestral domain of Kiltepan are tax-declared by Sagada Poblacion
individuals. One church leader who does not trace ancestry from Kiltepan has 5
hectares and a former mayor who also does not trace ancestry from Kiltepan has
8 hectares registered as titled property. A former government employee of
the municipality has hectares of land declared and titled and you will
wonder and sympathize with Kiltepan people how their land could have been
tax-declared or titled by particularly influential persons of Sagada
Poblacion who don’t trace their ancestry from Kiltepan.
Stories
of Kiltepan folks are one in saying sale happened between parties where the
seller from Kiltepan sold a small area reasonable enough within customary
bounds to consider his own eventually expanded to hectares tax-declared
by the buyer, or a small parcel lot given to one who asked for a space to till
which eventually got tax-declared in hectares and hectares in his name. Or
maybe other ways.
Meantime,
transfer of land via sales on the Kiltepan property forwards the
veracity of ownership of innocent and legitimate purchasers in good
faith. It would be injustice to grab the land of those who in their honest
belief and in good faith bought lands they believed they are buying from
legitimate sellers. For who would like to buy land that is questionable. The
law protects innocent purchasers.
The
law in customary practice has a rule to make sure that land is being sold
to rightful persons.
Land
is first offered to immediate relatives within the line where the lot comes
from then to relatives on the other side. It shall then be offered to adjacent
owners of the lot should there be no takers from immediate relatives. And where
adjacent owners not buy it shall be sold to the public within the ancestral
domain/tribe. In Sagada, a standing and oral belief and practice is that land
shall not be sold to those outside of Sagada. Meaning, not sold to anyone not
related to Sagada ascendants and descendants in the first degree.
The
above rule refers to individually-owned lots referring to residential
lots or ricefields where a person has specially inherited or acquired in other
ways. Nevertheless, selling one’s land is frowned at much as children or
children’s children shall inherit said property but seemingly understood
when the individual lot is sold for the education of children, thus the saying
heared among folks, ‘nan inuskilam nan tawid mo’ (what you gained in education
is your inheritance).
A
‘tayan’, ‘lakon’ or a ‘saguday’ which is a woodlot in most cases or communal
land of the umili which is a pasture land or watershed or spring in most
cases however is basically and should not be sold. This, based on the customary
practice and belief that a tayan or a lakon or saguday or a communal land is
for the clan and its members to enjoy in the next generation, and for the
communal land for the community to enjoy.
A
communal land for one located at nearby Lamagan within the Kiltepan area is a large tract of pastureland
considered communal by folks of Kiltepan as noted in interviews. This
however is tax-declared by one of Kiltepan people, Eduardo Latawan who declared
68 hectares of Lamagan or what is popularly called Marlboro Country in
his name. Shall this communal land cease to be communal and instead owned and
enjoyed by one person or shall this communal land be asserted by the people of
Kiltepan as their collective land. (to be continued next
issue)
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