Bloodshed looms over land dispute in Caraga’s Mt. Mayapay

BUTUAN CITY — Various tribes of indigenous people in the Caraga Region who are claiming that majority of the lands in the more than 7,000-hectare Mt. Mayapay belong to their ancestral domain warned of bloodshed if disputes over land ownership in the area remain unsolved.

The National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) had received the ancestral domain claims of the descendants and tribal clan members of Datu Aurelio Talibong Jr. in the mountain ranges that is only 10 kilometers away from this city and is located within the boundaries of Butuan City and Buenavista, Agusan del Norte.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that applicants from private organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs) and tribal groups applying for Community-based Forest Management Agreement (CBFMA), Integrated Social Forestry (ISF) and other DENR programs to make Mt. Mayapay lands productive are increasing.

Other enterprising, wealthy and politically influential Filipino-Chinese traders claim they already have land titles, claiming ownership of over 7,000 hectares in Mt. Mayapay.

Various pro-poor and livelihood projects to make the lands surrounding Mt. Mayapay productive that should have been implemented long time ago were being held off momentarily pending resolutions of the conflict which has resulted in various tribal groups raising the alarm.

Tribal leader and consultant Victoriano Vidal Jr. of the 250,000-strong Tribal Coalition of Mindanao (TRICOM) agree with observations of Trade and Industry Regional Director Brielgo Pagaran that the government must act now to solve the land conflicts in the region.

"Unresolved conflicts of land tenurial problems brought us all to a deadlock and made these lands unproductive, contributing to more problems. The many laws encompassing land tenurial issues and many government agencies administering land management have added insult to the injury like social time bomb waiting to explode," Vidal told The STAR in an interview.

Earlier, Caraga’s Regional Development Council vice chairman for Trade and Industry and regional director of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Brielgo Pagaran said that unresolved disputes over land conflicts ranging from ownership and boundary conflicts are among the major reasons why Caraga Region’s economy is at the doldrums.

"Who wants to till farms in the lands where trouble and bloodshed are imminent?" Pagaran told The STAR in an earlier interview. The Regional Development Council (RDC) official also claimed that 1.2 million hectares out of the total 1.9 million hectares in the region are still public lands.

Pagaran said only 358,856 hectares are privately owned and titled by the Land Registration Authority (LRA).

House Bill No. 04622 declaring Mt. Mayapay, situated in the City of Butuan and Buenavista, Agusan del Norte, as a National Park was filed by Butuan City Rep. Leovigildo Banaag and is now pending in the House committee on appropriations.