BAGUIO CITY – Some 128 applications for the issuance of Certificates of Ancestral Land titles (CALTs) covering various parts of the city are now undergoing the mandatory review of the concerned offices of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to ascertain their validity and legitimacy to be processed.
Lawyer Roland Calde, NCIP-CAR regional director, informed the members of the City Council that the previous moratorium on the acceptance of CALT applications and their subsequent processing had already been lifted, thus, the resumption of the pertinent processes to determine the legitimacy and validity of the said applications before the issuance of CALTs to the applied areas in the different parts of the city.
However, Calde revealed since the moratorium on the CALT applications in the city had been lifted by the Commission, the NCIP-CAR did not yet receive any new CALT applications from parties in the city and what their office is currently reviewing are those that were submitted prior to the implementation of the moratorium.
“The existing CALT applications have to undergo the mandatory review process if they comply with the provisions of Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples rights Act. We have to make sure that the applications do not overlap existing private titles and the titles of the national and local governments over lands in different parts of the city to prevent a repeat of problems encountered with the previous issuance of alleged fraudulent CALTs covering certain areas in the city,” Calde stressed.
He added the CALTs that were previously issued covering portions of Wright Park, Forbes Park among other areas where there were alleged encroachments over some national and local government properties were already cancelled as to form but the en banc resolution of the Commission relative to the said issuances is still undergoing scrutiny and review by the new set of Commissioners.
According to him, the lapses of the previous NCIP in the issuance of CALTs covering several areas in the city will no longer be repeated with the present batch of NCIP officials because they were given specific instructions to make sure that CALT applications do not overlap existing private titles and the titles of the national and local governments over the applied areas.
Section 78 of the IPRA provides that the City of Baguio shall be governed by its Charter and that all lands shall remain within its townsite reservation, provided that, prior ancestral rights recognized by the courts and quasi-judicial bodies before the effectivity of the law shall remain valid.
Calde said the agency is will accepting CALT applications from indigenous peoples and indigenous cultural communities for certain areas of the city as the moratorium on applications has been lifted but applicants must make sure that they meet the qualifications imposed by the IPRA and other related issuances of the Commission.
By Dexter A. See
