LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The Cordillera office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP-CAR) disclosed indigenous peoples can still reclaim parts of forest reservations which they could use for other important purposes beneficial to the preservation and protection of their ancestral domain.
Lawyer Roland Calde, NCIP-CAR regional director, said the power of the indigenous peoples and indigenous cultural communities to reclaim portions of reservations is enshrined under the pertinent provisions of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), thus, it would now be up to the concerned IPs to invoke and avail of the remedy to be able to get back portions of reservations for their use.
“It will be up to the concerned IPs to exercise the privilege granted to them by law to reclaim desired portions of reservations within their domain for the future use of their children among others,” Calde stressed.
Earlier, Gov. Crecencio Pacalso brought to the attention of the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera that majority of the areas in the province is covered by the Cordillera forest reserve and there are many laws, such as the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS), that hinder the proper usage of certain areas by the indigenous peoples and local government units.
Pacalso claimed local residents who are actually occupying the areas within the Cordillera forest reserve could not secure the necessary tenurial instruments as proof of their ownership and local governments have difficulty complying with environmental requirements because the areas they identified for their proposed engineered sanitary landfill fall within protected areas.
According to him, there are conflicts arising from the non-delineation of boundaries of the national parks vis-à-vis ancestral domain in the different communities within the province.
The RDC-CAR referred these issues to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), NCIP and other concerned agencies for evaluation and action from the region’s policy-making body to allow indigenous peoples to use portions of their domain that were declared as parts of reservations for productive purposes.
Calde said it will now be up to the indigenous peoples to initiate the appropriate proceedings for the reclaiming of parts of their domain that were declared as reservations and that the usage of the reclaimed areas of reservations will be stipulated in their ancestral domain sustainable development plan.
Pacalso claimed the existence of several laws impacting on the ancestral domain which resulted in confusion among indigenous peoples as well as on local governments and concerned government agencies, thus, the need for RDC-CAR to harmonize existing laws impacting on ancestral lands and the domain and other concerns of indigenous peoples.
He expressed optimism that the RDC-CAR will be able to formulate the appropriate policies that will help indigenous peoples maximize the use of their ancestral domain to spur economic growth in the said areas for the benefit of the present and future generations.
By HENT
