Eskaya elders’ council settle CLOA

Dispute within ancestral domains

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Sept 15 (PIA) –Over hurdling another elaborate and possibly time consuming legal battle over a cancellation of the issued certificates of land ownership awards (CLOAs) granted to individual members of the indigenous communities in their supposedly ancestral domains in the hinterlands of Bohol, a key official of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples would rather have the community settle the dispute the way their ancestors would have done.

Existing with a rather different system of living in the barangays of Taytay, Duero, Cantaub Sierra Bullones, Biabas Guindulman and Lundag in Pilar, the Eskayas, one of the hundred tribes recognized by the national government have in the recent decades, applied for Certificate of Ancestral Domains Claim (CAD-C) in the contiguous areas of these barangays claiming these are their ancestral hollowed grounds, a claim which stretches back during the pre-conquest times.

However, before the government could grant them their certificate of ancestral domain titles (CAD-T) government agencies that are also handling out lands to spur agricultural production, handed out Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) to tribe members, before the NCIP could complete the full survey of the lands right comprising those claimed ancestral domains.

As the NCIP surveyed 3,173 hectares of domains covering the barangays of Lundag in Pilar; Taytay in Duero; Biabas in Guindulman; and Canta-ub in Sierra Bullones, they found out that within the said areas are also members of the Eskaya showing CLOAs, making them technical owners of portions of the ancestral domains.

NCIP Regional Director for Regions 6 and 7, Ana Burgos pointed out that the problem with the CLOA is that it would soon allow the owner members of the indigenous cultural community (ICC) to sell or encumber the property, denying other members the tribal rights to the whole ancestral domain.

With a government issued CAD-title, the whole contiguous area would be declared as a communal property of the Eskaya and assures that the ancestral domain claim remains to be whole, for the future generation of the Eskaya to enjoy as their ancestral hollowed grounds, in the full concept of culture preservation, Burgos explained.

The government however can not issue a CAD-T without settling first the issues of the CLOAs within the AD claims.

Composed largely by seemingly impenetrable forests, small areas of cultivation and wildlife refuge areas, the Eskaya Ancestral Domain Claim has been acknowledged, but with issues of CLOA holders within the same area, this has significantly reduced the area of the ancestral domains, shared Eskaya elder Jovito Datahan.

As calls from Eskaya minorities to government to cancel these illegal ownership grants to certain areas, Burgos said a law said that the government also recognizes these CLOAs released before the CAD-C has been filed and areas validated.

The issue is further complicated with the indigenous peoples’ concept of ownership which states that all resources found within the area belongs to the ICC, that they own the right to develop and manage, control and use, and that these areas where CLOAs are issued can be considered by Eskaya members as theirs.

In the interim, as the NCIP is currently in the process of segregating the CLOAs, which was also largely delayed with the pandemic restrictions and the bureaucracy, an NCIP geodetic engineer working on the harmonization of the AD area and the CLOA grants reported.

The NCIP said after they can segregate the CLOAs from the AD claim, which they said could be done after some time, these would be sent to NCIP in Manila for resolution, which also takes time.

However, Burgos, who suggests using the hilot system, urged members of the Eskaya to convene the council elders and settle the issue first, thinking that if the CLO awardees are also tribe members, they could facilitate a faster resolution that the lengthy legal measure.

A CLOA can be surrendered for and in favor of the Eskaya claim, and that could easily resolve the issue.

The nagging question however is, if among those CLO awardees are non-members of the Eskaya IPs, which again begs the question, how did the CLOA get awarded to non-IPs? (PIA-7/Bohol)

SETTLING IP DISPUTES. NCIP RD Ana Burgos (middle) urges the Eskaya Council of Elders to settle the indigenous peoples’ (IP) dispute like their ancestors would: Sit down with members of the IP holding CLOAs to resolve potential shrinking of the ancestral domains due to the CLOAs. The problem still is, what if, among those granted with CLOAs are non members of the Eskaya and are just claiming to get a free ride with the government offer for lands? NCIP came to Eskaya community in Biabas during the NGA visitation in the Biabas Eskaya community and was hosted by the provincial government represented by Romeo Teruel of the Office of Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado and Eskaya communities represented here by Sierra Bullones Vice Mayor Eugenio Datahan who has IP roots. (PIAbohol)

FIGHTING FOR CULTURAL PRESERVATION. Taking a hard stand are Eskaya leaders who see that an un-surrendered CLOA in the hands of a member will technically allow the holder to sell and encumber the property, which eventually would be beyond the use of any Eskaya member as the property can not anymore be claimed as part of the indigenous community’s ancestral domains. (PIAbohol)