Tuesday, December 30, 2008 RDC bats for solution to land woes
THE Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera adopted the inter-agency approach towards harmonizing and resolving policy differences on lands.
This will involve concerned government agencies and instrumentalities in the conduct of information, education, and communication campaign on land tenure instruments and sustaining the current inter-agency efforts.
The region's policy-making body pointed out that the inter-agency approach involving the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has been proven highly effective as seen in the recently-concluded Ifugao land summit in Banaue, Ifugao.
However, the RDC asserted there is a need to synchronize the conduct of advocacy campaign on land titling by the DENR, DAR, NCIP, and other government agencies to avoid duplication overlapping of land tenure instrument issuances.
The Cordillera is characterized by its being a geographically contiguous ancestral domain area and principally inhabited by indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples which compromise more than 90 percent of its 1.4 million population.
The DENR, DAR, and NCIP are issuing land tenure instruments as part of their respective mandates.
But there is confusion among the target beneficiaries as to the nature, scope, and effects of the land tenure instruments especially with the Regalian doctrine and the native title and that the issuance of certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) is merely a formal recognition of the said title.
Section 11 of Republic Act (RA) 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (Ipra) of 1997 provides for the recognition and respect for the native title and that the issuance of CADT is merely a recognition of the said title.
The RDC believes the implementation of a synchronized advocacy campaign coupled with the adoption of uniformed rules relative to land tenure instruments would ease the burden of those involved in land conflicts especially in the litigation of their conflicts.
Recently, the DENR and the NCIP are working out the crafting of uniformed rules in the issuance and recognition of land tenure instruments so that the conflicts in the implementation of the related laws will be addressed and corrected to prevent cases from clogging their respective offices in the future.
The DENR deals with the titling of alienable and disposable lands, the DAR issues titles under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp), and the NCIP deals with the concerns of indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples.
According to the RDC, concerned government agencies and instrumentalities must adopt the necessary administrative proceedings in their respective offices to settle the expected conflicts arising from the varied issuance of titles.
This is to prevent the mushrooming of cases related to land tenure instruments issued by the different agencies. (Dexter A. See)
