SQUATTING has been a perennial problem for Baguio City and the sting that it creates has made local officials sometimes helpless.
And when these illegal settlers find an ally in the government, it only means one thing…Chaos!!!
Illegal settlers run around the law saying they have right over a certain parcel of land in the city because of the Indigenous People Rights Acts Law under Republic Act 8371.
It’s funny how these illegal settlers have made pun of the law that even saw them claiming government owned lot, reservations, parks and watershed because of their ancestral claims.
The passage of RA 8371 made way for the creation of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples tasked to protect and promote the interest and well-being of the ICCs/IPs with due regard to their beliefs, customs and institutions.
Now, the NCIP also approved land claims by the indigenous themselves within a certain area.
But Baguio City was not spared despite not generally covered by the IPRA law. Reports from CENRO showed one-fifth of the city has already been titled under Republic Act 8371.
Baguio City is only covered in an exceptional situation because of Section 78 of IPRA stating the city shall continue to be governed by its City Charter and all lands which form its townsite reservation shall remain as such until reclassified by legislation.
It seems the NCIP has erased Section 78 of the IPRA law in their hand book and has recklessly issued ancestral land titles to its watersheds, forest reservations, parks and vital infrastructures which include portions of Wright Park, Forbes Park, Botanical Garden, including portions of the Busol Watershed, Philippine Military Academy and the Loakan Airport.
In Wright Park alone, various national government properties that include the Senate President and the House of Representative Speaker’s cottages are already covered by an existing ancestral title including some portions of the presidential Mansion compound.
If these unabated issuance of land titles to the supposed ancestral claimants, then were do Baguio City goes?