UC among Phl top law schools / Baguio council seeks NCIP’s opinion on city charter

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – Congratulations to the University of the Cordilleras (UC) of this summer capital, for being named among top law schools in the country based on 2020-2021 bar examination results.
    Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, 2020-2021 bar examination chairperson announced 8,241 out of 11,202 examinees passed the 2020-2021 bar examinations, the first digitalized bar exam in the country.
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I told my son Robin, who was part of the 2020-2021 batch he could not have passed the bar if it was not digitalized since he has illegible handwriting.
    Robin and his elder brother Alfred Jr. attended law school in UC until their fourth year but graduated in other schools since one or two subjects were not offered in their last semesters. The latter we call “Jay” passed the bar earlier. They were lucky to be tutored by legal luminaries teaching in the UC College of Law headed by dean Reynaldo U. Agranzamendez
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Anyway, UC was named among top law schools in the country for placing third in Group 1 with excellent passer Stephanie Mae Bibat Domingo.
    Passers with excellent performance are those who garnered a grade or score of 91 percent and above.
    In said examination, there was no list of traditional topnotchers but instead, examinees were recognized according to their exemplary and excellent performance in bar examinations.
    Based on report issued by the Legal Education Board, of the top 10 performing law schools in the 2019 bar examinations, UC ranked No. 9 for law schools with 63 examinees.
    In the 2018 bar examination, records showed UC ranked No. 23 out of 108 law schools whose graduates took the examination.
    The said report was based on statistical data of the Supreme Court issued by the same board.
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It is but fitting that the Baguio City Council, in a resolution, stated UC was “holding up the torch of knowledge and wisdom, making the city a renowned educational center of the north and a mecca of learning. The city government is truly proud and felicitates with the university and its graduates’ accomplishments and the honor.”
    The council said UC consistently exhibited exemplary performances in previous bar exams.
The council also recognized UC’s Stephanie Mae Bibat Domingo for her excellent performance rating garnered with a rating of over 90 percent in said bar examination. 
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The Baguio City Council, in its Nov. 15 regular session, passed a resolution urging the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples- Cordillera Administrative Region to comment on the revised Baguio City Charter (Republic Act No. 11689) regarding ancestral lands in the city.
    Jordan Habbiling, staff of the Baguio City Council in an article, said Councilor Jose Molintas, principal author of the resolution, requested the NCIP-CAR to examine Republic Act 11689 and find out whether its provisions support processing of ancestral land titles in the city or “erase” the rights of the Indigenous Peoples to their ancestral domain.
    Molintas authored a resolution last August inviting the public, academe, Integrated Bar of the Philippines Baguio-Benguet Chapter, government agencies and barangay officials to submit comments, and recommendations on "ambiguous" provisions of RA No. 11689, Habbiling said. 
    During the session, Molintas requested NCIP-CAR lawyers Arthur Herman and Severino Lumiqued to also submit their position on RA 11689, focusing on specific provisions regarding ancestral lands in the city. 
Molintas questioned exclusion of many areas of the city from issuance of Certificates of Ancestral Land Titles (CALTs) and Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs).
    The councilor was referring to Section 78 of the IPRA which provides for properties that are part of the Baguio Townsite Reservation before passage of the IPRA, no new CALT or CADT can be issued by the NCIP.
    For Molintas, this particular provision is “problematic” saying it is in conflict with the Mateo Cariño Doctrine which, according to him, has not yet been overturned and still remains valid jurisprudence.
    The Mateo Carino Doctrine was a Supreme Court ruling penned by Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. It benefited not only the IPs of the Philippines but also native communities in other parts of the world as courts cite this jurisprudence in protecting rights of original inhabitants of a certain territory.
    In a privilege speech he delivered in the city council earlier, Molintas claimed Baguio City had been selling lands supposedly covered by “native titles” through Townsites Sales Application, Commercial Sales Application, and Miscellaneous Sales Application since the day it was chartered.
    He said current and future administrations must work harder for the remuneration and restoration of these ancestral lands original settlers had lost. 
    In a recent interview, he said the next step after gathering all inputs from stakeholders on the revised Baguio City Charter is to push for amendment of  provisions including those that pertain to ancestral land claims within the Baguio Townsite Reservation and in protected areas particularly Camp John Hay Reservation  managed by the Bases Conversion Development Authority.
    One of objectives of the amendment of these provisions to be proposed is to ensure indigenous peoples’ prior land rights in the city are recognized and protected, Molintas said.