Ibalois' Rights on Lands Denied

When we consider the arguments for the acceptance autonomy for the Cordilleras, and the insistence of the leaders in Mindanao for the approval or passage of the Bill for the Bangsamoro, and the quest of the Ibalois for the recognition of their ancestral land rights, especially in the City of Baguio, one cannot help but think that there seems to be an insistence in denying the rights of the Ibalois to the land of their forebears.

There are similarities in the situations of the people of Mindanao and the Cordilleras, including the City of Baguio, and the rest of the Filipinos.

All the lands in the Philippines were declared as public lands as soon as the Americans arrived in the islands. Then, they proclaimed some portions of the country as reservations for military, town site, forest, mining, hospitals and other purposes.

Then, because of the clamor of the Indigenous Peoples for the recognition of their land rights, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) was made into a law, and no other than the much admired late Senator Flavier helped in making it so.

Now, indigenous peoples in other parts of the Country are happy because of the recognition of their ancestral land and domain rights. But, in the City of Baguio, the indigenous peoples here are contending with the insistence of the leaders that “only those whose claims were “processed” before the passage of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) are the ones to be recognized. Because of the provisions of that Section 78 of the IPRA, or of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the IPRA.

It seems an innocent and logical enough reason. The inclusion of that Section in the Law seems to be innocent, and legal. But is it? May be, it is legal, because it is already part of the law. But is it moral?

Why is it that other people in the Philippines are given more time to have their land rights recognized, while the Ibalois of Baguio have been limited only to that time before the passage of the IPRA? Before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Special Order No. 31 creating the Special Task Force on Ancestral Lands (STFAL), the Ibalois have been struggling for so long for the recognition of their land rights.

Then after the passage of the IPRA, many are again wondering how to go about their land rights in the face of the statement that it is only those applications for the recognition… of ancestral lands that were ”processed “ before the passage of the IPRA that will be recognized.. . B.T. Pistola

B.T. Pistola

 (Authority to repost given by Author)

Published:
Volume 1, No 22 
TNT, Baguio City, Philippines 
December 14 2014 
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