Manobos protest NCIP grant to ex-mayor

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – A number of Manobos, including two women, from Maramag, Bukidnon had their heads shaved yesterday to dramatize their protest against a decision of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in northern Mindanao that would affect their application for a 484-hectare land.

The head-shaving was just one of the moves of the tribal folk to oppose the granting of a free and prior informed consent (FPIC) by the NCIP to former Kibawe, Bukidnon mayor Ernesto Villalon.

Dozens of Manobos, including children, have camped out in front of the NCIP office here since Monday.

The granting of the FPIC has resulted in the issuance of a forest land graze management agreement by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to Villalon last April.

The protesters belonging to the Panalsalan Dagumbaaan Tribal Association (Padata) said tribal folk who recommended the issuance of the FPIC are not actual occupants of the land, situated in the villages of Panalsalan and Dagumbaan in Maramag town.

Padata has a pending application for a certificate of ancestral domain title and community-based forest management (CBFM) on the disputed land before the DENR.

Under the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA), a tribal group may recommend the issuance of a FPIC to an individual or an entity.

One of the group’s leaders, Dagumbaan tribal chieftain Alfredo Ganinay, has questioned the way the FPIC was granted to Villalon, saying that non-residents were the ones who supposedly approved it.

But NCIP specialist Oscar Baldoman refuted this, saying those who approved the FPIC are actual residents of the contested area.

Baldoman said those opposing the FPIC belong to a faction arising from infighting among leaders of Manobo clans in the area.

The IPRA, according to Baldoman, states that tribal land inheritance is hereditary and not determined by the actual period of land occupation unlike what the DENR and the Department of Agrarian Reform have implemented.

Padata members said they want Villalon’s FPIC revoked by the NCIP, otherwise they would camp out in front of the NCIP office here for as long as they can.

In 2007, the Maramag town council passed a resolution endorsing Padata’s CBFM application.

The following year, a DENR team recommended that Padata be awarded the CBFM, the group said.