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Thursday, October 24, 2002
NCIP stops relocation survey
THE National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) central office has ordered its regional director to cease and desist from pushing through with the relocation survey in Polomolok, South Cotabato, a move that could affect the ancestral claims of 21 B'laan clans in the area.
NCIP chair Evelyn Dunuan, in her memorandum to NCIP 11 director Roque Agton Jr., said in the absence of a survey authority and pending the completion of the fact-finding investigation on the ancestral claims of the B'laan clans, the relocation survey should not proceed.
The claimants were set to conduct a relocation survey on October 16 but it was postponed after reports came out that they were being backed by Tahir Alonto, alleged fugitive leader of the Pentagon kidnap for ransom group.
The petitioner, who are representing some 1,500 B'laans, are claiming 2,700 hectares of land in barangays Polo, Kinilis and Landan, all in Polomolok, as their ancestral domain.
The area was awarded in 1989 to Dolefil Agrarian Reform Beneficiary Cooperative Inc. (DARBCI), which in turn leased it the pineapple company.
Dunuan believed that the suspension of the relocation survey would help defuse the tension among claimants, members of DARBCI and other interested groups and individuals.
A week ago, Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza intervened in the land dispute by creating a regional inter-agency taskforce to resolve the issue. Merlyn F. Velarde |
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