After CRADC, Eskaya to get

ancestral domain title soon

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—For patiently waiting in the last 17 years for their claims to their ancestral domains which have significantly shrunk through the decades, the patience of the Eskaya community in the mountain communities of Duero, Guindulman, Sierra Bullones and Pilar could be in for a double pay-off this year.

This as the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in Bohol through their field office head Emmilou M Gonzaga bared that they expect the communal title for the Eskaya ancestral domain claim issued before the year ends.

Speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA, Gonzaga, who bared that the community of indigenous peoples in Taytay Duero, Biabas Guindulman, Cantaub Sierra Bullones and Lundag in Pilar recently gathered in the community center in Guindulman to officially receive the government recognition for their ancestral domain claims, 17 years after they filed their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CAD-C).

It may be recalled the Eskaya received their CADC in 1997 when Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Victor Ramos released the official document acknowledging the government’s receipt of the claim by the indigenous communities.

According to Gonzaga, the claim on ancestral domains was based on established genealogies, folk knowledge, customs and traditions of the Eskaya, and validated by technical survey of the NCIP team of geodetic engineers as well as the DENR survey of the claimed domains.

And just as the Eskaya started to believe they have succeeded in convincing the government to hear them out, the government also issued other tenurial instruments that allowed people to be awarded lots, which are within the claimed domains.

The move frustrated several indigenous peoples and even the tribal councils of the eskaya communities.

Last March 27, 2025 however, the NCIP national chairperson Jennifer Pia Sibug-las and NCIP-Region 6 lawyer Princess Mae Oral came to hand over to Eskaya officials their Certificate of Recognition of Ancestral Domain Claims (CRADC), which is among the steps leading to the award of the title for the entire ancestral domain claimed, reports Gonzaga.

The CRADC also triggers the courts to submit to the Land Registration Authority the surveyed lands claimed for the eventual issuance of the most awaited Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) which will finally officially mark the boundaries for the indigenous people’s claim of domains.

For the issuance of the CRADT, NCIP Bohol estimates that it would take a few more months before the LRA could issue the title for the Eskaya.

At that, she says it may actually happen within this year.

The subject ancestral domain claimed measures some 3,106.3889 square hectares.

If the title for the over 3,000 hectares indeed comes out this year, the 17 years of patiently waiting by the Eskayas would be properly compensated, if their title for the whole domain comes out this year. register(PIABOhol)

DOUBLY PAID. If the Eskayas waited for 17 years before any visible move on their ancestral domain claim happened, it might just be worth the wait because with the ancestral domain claim now bound for the Land Registration Authority to register, this also makes the land eligible finally for titling, which could happen anytime now. (PIABohol)