ANCESTRAL DOMAIN...
A ROSE BY ANY NAME IS AS SWEET
By Prof. MC Barrameda
At the bottom of the GRP-BJE-AD aborted MOA is the concept of Ancestral Domain (4 years discussion on the table). Interestingly, at the onset of the peace talks with the then contentious group, MNLF with the Marcos regime, their rallying cry was BANGSA MORO HOMELAND THE RIGHT TO SELF DETERMINATION.
Simultaneously, the Indigenous Peoples (then called Tribal Filipinos) also were at the height of their struggles (legal and armed) for their lands and territories. These were occasioned by the usurpation of their lands by multinational corporations backed by the state apparatus. Two decrees of Marcos: PD 410 and PD 705 were promulgated to accommodate the Paper and Pulp Industry of the Cellophil Resources Corporations of a Marcos crony, Herminio Disini and the Chico Dam Project funded by World Bank.
PROF. MC BARRAMEDA
U.P. Diliman Anthropology Department, College of Law and NGO Network particularly from the Cordilleras (that were hit hard by the development aggression of the MNC’s in cahoots with the government) sponsored several forums and dialogues with the stakeholders. These were mainly the Tingguians of Abra and the Igorots of Bontoc and Kalinga; National Power Corporation and the military representing the government.
The first of these forums was the congress on Human Rights and Ancestral Lands where the concept was discussed by social scientists, lawyers, church people, NGOs, the government panel and the representatives from the Tribal Peoples.
“Native title” from the legalese, was a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court lent arguments to the validity of ownership of the Indigenous Peoples of their lands and territories via the Western jurisprudence.
Anthropologists and the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) did not approve of the lawyers’ contention. They posed the question, “Do natives need title?” Their lands and territories are neither private nor public. If these were titled, these can be alienated, sold or disposed of and that would be the end of their patrimony. A source book on Human Rights and Ancestral Domains with the compilation of relevant laws like Torrens Titling, Mining Law of 1905, Public Land Laws of 1901, etc. essays and the proceedings was one of the outputs of the congress.
The assassination of Macling Dulag who refused to recognize and to recourse to the legal system as a form of their continuing struggle to defend their ancestral lands and territories paved the way to the national consolidation of IP federation. This made inroads to the UN, finally to the setting up of the Permanent Commission of the Indigenous Peoples. This is headed now by an IP from the Cordilleras, Victoria T. Corpus.
The ousting of Marcos in 1986 occasioned the 2nd Ancestral Land Congress held at San Carlos University, Cebu City. This was hastened by the exclusion of the IPs from the Policy Consultation Workshop convened on the instruction of President Aquino, whose Ancestral domains were sites of development projects during the Marcos time. Ancestral domain was defined more sharply according to the minds of 300 IP delegates from &) IP peoples’ organizations. With 10 lawyers in attendance, an EO was formulated for President Aquino to sign. This did not happen as she passed this on the newly restored Congress who sat on it for 10 years. In 1995 Mining Law was passed impinging on the Ancestral Domain so that President Ramos was forced to sign the IPRA Law in 1997. A very mangled law, it nevertheless is the only legal instrument that can be used as a clout to ancestral domain claim. Meanwhile, the IPs continued lobbying at the UN for decades which finally bore fruits with the setting –up of a Permanent Commission on Indigenous Peoples Rights.
Why the Historical Account?
As a people, the IPs insisted on being called a People or Peoples, not cultural minorities or tribal communities. Only peoples have the right to self determination as emanating from their origin to the ancestral domain. This is defined according to their collective memory of the land occupied by their ancestors; the metes and bounds, the cultures, laws, traditions, rituals, rights and ceremonies that render the land or domain not just a material base but the spiritual link to the living and their dead. For that matter their ancestral domain is sacred.
It is also to set the record straight that the IPs who were left out or taken as an afterthought in the discussion of the canceled MOA-AD were well ahead in their struggle to self determination through the recognition and declaration of their ANCESTRAL DOMAIN.
That MILF made use of the term admittedly lifted from IPRA, is their prerogative. The concept is well-defined that takes back to time beyond recall. They are well aware too of the metes and bounds of their territories. History is a great aid, the distortions and relativity notwithstanding. This is apparent with the entry of settlers on the urgings of the Spanish – American colonizers, then with the government since the 50s to the present in collusion with the MNCs.
A truly nationalistic government, which unfortunately we never had, should have taken care of the constituencies; respected their rights to grow into fuller humanity through their techno-economic, political, social and ideational dimensions of their human life.
At the bottom of the GRP-BJE-AD aborted MOA is the concept of Ancestral Domain (4 years discussion on the table). Interestingly, at the onset of the peace talks with the then contentious group, MNLF with the Marcos regime, their rallying cry was BANGSA MORO HOMELAND THE RIGHT TO SELF DETERMINATION.
Simultaneously, the Indigenous Peoples (then called Tribal Filipinos) also were at the height of their struggles (legal and armed) for their lands and territories. These were occasioned by the usurpation of their lands by multinational corporations backed by the state apparatus. Two decrees of Marcos: PD 410 and PD 705 were promulgated to accommodate the Paper and Pulp Industry of the Cellophil Resources Corporations of a Marcos crony, Herminio Disini and the Chico Dam Project funded by World Bank.
U.P. Diliman Anthropology Department, College of Law and NGO Network particularly from the Cordilleras (that were hit hard by the development aggression of the MNC’s in cahoots with the government) sponsored several forums and dialogues with the stakeholders. These were mainly the Tingguians of Abra and the Igorots of Bontoc and Kalinga; National Power Corporation and the military representing the government. The first of these forums was the congress on Human Rights and Ancestral Lands where the concept was discussed by social scientists, lawyers, church people, NGOs, the government panel and the representatives from the Tribal Peoples.
“Native title” from the legalese, was a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court lent arguments to the validity of ownership of the Indigenous Peoples of their lands and territories via the Western jurisprudence.
Anthropologists and the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) did not approve of the lawyers’ contention. They posed the question, “Do natives need title?” Their lands and territories are neither private nor public. If these were titled, these can be alienated, sold or disposed of and that would be the end of their patrimony. A source book on Human Rights and Ancestral Domains with the compilation of relevant laws like Torrens Titling, Mining Law of 1905, Public Land Laws of 1901, etc. essays and the proceedings was one of the outputs of the congress.
The assassination of Macling Dulag who refused to recognize and to recourse to the legal system as a form of their continuing struggle to defend their ancestral lands and territories paved the way to the national consolidation of IP federation. This made inroads to the UN, finally to the setting up of the Permanent Commission of the Indigenous Peoples. This is headed now by an IP from the Cordilleras, Victoria T. Corpus.
The ousting of Marcos in 1986 occasioned the 2nd Ancestral Land Congress held at San Carlos University, Cebu City. This was hastened by the exclusion of the IPs from the Policy Consultation Workshop convened on the instruction of President Aquino, whose Ancestral domains were sites of development projects during the Marcos time. Ancestral domain was defined more sharply according to the minds of 300 IP delegates from &) IP peoples’ organizations. With 10 lawyers in attendance, an EO was formulated for President Aquino to sign. This did not happen as she passed this on the newly restored Congress who sat on it for 10 years. In 1995 Mining Law was passed impinging on the Ancestral Domain so that President Ramos was forced to sign the IPRA Law in 1997. A very mangled law, it nevertheless is the only legal instrument that can be used as a clout to ancestral domain claim. Meanwhile, the IPs continued lobbying at the UN for decades which finally bore fruits with the setting –up of a Permanent Commission on Indigenous Peoples Rights.
Why the Historical Account?
As a people, the IPs insisted on being called a People or Peoples, not cultural minorities or tribal communities. Only peoples have the right to self determination as emanating from their origin to the ancestral domain. This is defined according to their collective memory of the land occupied by their ancestors; the metes and bounds, the cultures, laws, traditions, rituals, rights and ceremonies that render the land or domain not just a material base but the spiritual link to the living and their dead. For that matter their ancestral domain is sacred.
It is also to set the record straight that the IPs who were left out or taken as an afterthought in the discussion of the canceled MOA-AD were well ahead in their struggle to self determination through the recognition and declaration of their ANCESTRAL DOMAIN.
That MILF made use of the term admittedly lifted from IPRA, is their prerogative. The concept is well-defined that takes back to time beyond recall. They are well aware too of the metes and bounds of their territories. History is a great aid, the distortions and relativity notwithstanding. This is apparent with the entry of settlers on the urgings of the Spanish – American colonizers, then with the government since the 50s to the present in collusion with the MNCs.
A truly nationalistic government, which unfortunately we never had, should have taken care of the constituencies; respected their rights to grow into fuller humanity through their techno-economic, political, social and ideational dimensions of their human life.