MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) struck an agreement with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in facilitating discussions with indigenous communities regarding the use of 2,000 school sites within their ancestral domains.
DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro and NCIP Chair Zenaida Brigida Pawid signed the memorandum of agreement outlining the steps in consulting the indigenous communities on the use of their land.
The agreement requires that after the research, verification and survey of school sites, usufruct agreements- deals giving DepEd legal rights to use the ancestral domains- will be executed.
“In partnership with indigenous peoples’ communities, we would like to address the land issues related to existing school sites within ancestral domains. Furthermore, we are keen to work with the communities in protecting these areas and ensuring that education services provided by these schools are relevant and responsive to the wellbeing of the community and the ancestral domain,†Luistro said.
Out of the 46,000 public elementary and secondary school sites in the country, 2,000 are located within ancestral lands.
“Some of these lands are supposed to have been donated but we need to verify these,†Luistro said.