Baguio charter being revised; What now for ancestral lands?

>> Wednesday, June 23, 2021

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY -- A Senate bill filed by Sen. Imee Marcos is seeking to revise the Charter of Baguio City, but subject to refinement of some provisions by a technical working group.
    The Senate committee on local government headed by Sen. Francis Tolentino, chair of the committee, said provisions on territorial boundaries, city officials, boards and councils, and ancestral lands are among the parts of the Senate Bill No. 2163 to be “fine-tuned” by the TWG.
    He said the TWG will wait for position papers coming from Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Bases Conversion and Development Authority, and “perhaps the City Council and Camp John Hay authorities.”
    “The committee is approving the measure subject to a technical working group refinement,” he added.
Tolentino said the TWG will be composed of members of the Senate committee, the legal officer of Baguio City government, the Land Management Bureau, the Dept. of the Interior and Local Government, BCDA, Camp John Hay authorities, and the office of Baguio City Rep. Mark Go.
    The TWG meeting will be held in Baguio City.
    The Senate bill, by Sen, Marcos, seeks to revise the current charter of Baguio “to cater the present needs of the city and its people.”
    “The proposed measure retains similar goals, primarily to include the effective implementation of the city government’s land use development plan, settlement of the boundary dispute of the city with the adjoining Municipality of Tuba, addressing the problem in the disposition of alienable and disposable public lands with the Baguio townsite reservation, and the creation of a more responsive taxation system and revenue generating projects,” Marcos said in her explanatory note for the bill.
    The bill states, the DENR retains sole authority over the control and supervision of alienable and disposable public lands, and that the revised charter does not interfere on the disposition of public properties owned by the BCDA,” she said.
    The House of Representatives also approved on third and final reading a similar measure called House Bill No. 8882 last March.
   *** 
It would be good if the TWG would widen its scope in their meetings to include stakeholders like concerned folks, lawyers and ancestral land claimants or owners before it “fine-tunes” its recommendations for revision of Senate Bill 2163.   
    It seems this time, the Ibalois, the first settlers of this summer capital “since time immemorial” are again being left out as regards their ancestral lands some of which have been allegedly unfairly expropriated by government or taken over by private individuals from the lowlands due to connections with the powers-that-be over the years. 
    The Supreme Court had earlier turned down petitions asking it to reverse its 2019 affirmation that the summer capital was not covered by the ancestral land titling provisions of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA), according to a Feb. 10, 2020  special notice transmitted to the city legal office.
    The SC Special Second Division dismissed four motions for reconsideration regarding the tribunal’s Sept. 25, 2019 ruling, which nullified the Certificates of Ancestral Land Titles (CALT) of the heirs of Cosen Piraso and Josephine Abanag.
    The petitions were filed by the NCIP and a private company, whose petition to participate as an intervenor was rejected by the Court.
    The Piraso and Abanag CALT were among the five controversial Ibaloy titles questioned by the Baguio government for “encroaching” into public parks, the city’s oldest hotel, government reservations, and a portion of the presidential Mansion.
An internal investigation conducted in 2015 by NCIP reportedly uncovered anomalies in the 2010 issuances of CALT, which included the Piraso and Abanag titles.
   ***
The 2019 decision was penned by former acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio before he retired.
    In that decision, the Court said the titles granted to the Abanag and Piraso families were void because the NCIP had no legal authority to issue CALT or CADT (Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles) within Baguio’s townsite reservation, as stipulated by Section 78 of the IPRA (Republic Act No. 8371).
    This provision states that Baguio would continue to be governed by its 1909 Charter, and would have control over its townsite lands unless these properties are “reclassified by appropriate legislation.”
    The High Court said Ibalois may acquire a title for “prior land rights and titles recognized and acquired through any judicial, administrative or other processes before the effectivity of the IPRA and territories after the effectivity of the IPRA.”
    But it says none of these processes apply to the land claims of the Abanag and Piraso clans.
   ***
The city’s Ibaloi community had objected to the decision because of its impact on all ancestral land claims.
    The 1909 judicial recognition of the “Native Title” of Ibaloy herdsman Mateo CariƱo inside what is now Camp John Hay here was one of the legal foundations for IPRA and provisions of the 1987 Constitution that recognizes and protects indigenous Filipino rights.
    It seems the issue of ancestral lands ownership nationwide would still be a contentious question the coming years as even in some parts of the country, indigenous peoples to include children are reportedly being killed by greedy entities like those in government.   
 

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