Abanos Lecture on IPRA
case for application for the recognition of his title in a particular
Purpose is to recognize, promote, and identify the rights of an IP.
110 ethnolinguistic groups. Constitute 13-15million of the
population.
Land = Life. Gift from God.
Their view: Group/community ownership, not individual ownership.
Their cultural integrity is linked to the land.
Torrens system, you acquire ownership through occupation, since
1945, prescription etc.
IPs acquire the land through naked title. They occupy it, nurture it,
since time immemorial.
Question before: Some were questioning ancestral domain,
ancestral land. We follow regalia doctrine. All lands belong to the
state, and the state you get ownership from the land. This case is
different because these lands were occupied even before the
Spaniards came.
SC ruling: Ancestral lands and ancestral domain were never part of
the public domain, they were owned privately by the indigenous
people even before the Spaniards came, the lands were never part
of the state. They have never been public land! (Cruz v Sec DENR)
Ancestral land = Land itself
Ancestral domain = What is in the land like forest, mineral
resources, everything that is in there.
1909 very early decision by the US SCa certain Cruz, an IP, filed a
area. Decision was in favor of the indigenous title. It may rightly be
assumed therefore that all lands were held by the crown, it did not
insure to convert the native lands owned by natives. Every
presumption is against the government in the case against the
present. The land has been held by individuals in a claim of private
ownership, before the Spanish conquest.
Public Domain Agricultural, Industrial, Commercial, Residential
Constitution: State must recognize the rights of indigenous cultural
communities, including rights of ancestral land and ancestral
domain. (Totally different classification even in the Constitution)
You have under the Torrens system an original certificate of title,
tct, etc.
For IPs they have the CALT and CADT (Certificate of ancestral land
title, Certificate of ancestral domain title) issued to them.
There is a survey to find out the bounds of the land title (sometimes
the ancestral land is much wider than the survey) It is submitted to
the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) created by
the IPRA law. After survey, there will be testimonies, that the tribe
owns the ancestral land/domain.
Sometimes there can be two groups claiming the same land. There
will be a hearing then in the Ancestral Domain office, an office in
the NCIP. It is the NCIP who will then issue the title. It should be a
group ownership.
Some anomalies: some CALT and CADTs have been issued to
families. There have been problems regarding that.