Why does the IPRA, and/or its IRR exclude the Ibalois of Baguio from the enjjoyment of their right as Indigenous Peoples as embodied in the Philippine Constitution?
It is February once again, and on the 23rd of it, Ibalois will be gathering at that portion of the Burnham Park that the City Government allowed them to use as a gathering place as they celebrate Ibaloi day the date of which is based on the day that the United States Supreme Court decided the land registration case filed by Mateo Carino against the Insular Government.
On the 23rd of February, 1909, the United States Supreme Court decided in favor of Mateo Carino, represented by Metcalfe A. Clark, whne he appealed the decision of the Court of First Instance of the Province of Benguet dismissing his petition for the registration of that land that was reserved for the United States Military which had an area of 146 hectares.
He first filed his petition for the registration of the land with the Court of Land Registration. The CLR decided in his favor, but the government opposed his petition. It appealed the case with the Court of First Instance of Benguet which dismissed Carino’s petition.
Carino then represented by Clarke appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court favored Carino.
From a Syllabus of the Decision written on the 23rd of February, 1909, one can read the following:
“The Organic Act of the Philippines made a bill of rights embodying safeguards of the Constitution, and, like the Constitution, extends all those safeguards to all.
Every presumption of ownership is in favor of one actually occupying land for many years, and against the government which seeks to deprive him of it, for failure to comply with provisions of a subsequently enacted registration act.”
The Philippine Constitution of 1997 provides for the recognition of ancestral lands of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines.
I wonder why the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) or its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) includes a section which deprived a group of indigenous peoples who are also Filipinos from enjoying a right that is supposed to be enjoyed by all indigenous peoples of the Philippines.
What have the Ibalois of Baguio done to deserve the punishment from their fellow Filipinos?
Or are they supposed to be not “indigenous”?
Or, are they just ‘sloths’ hanging from the branches of pine trees with no rights to live on their land? Ae they not also Filipinos who have rights guaranteed by the Philippine Constitution? btpistola
