Indigenous peoples hit delays in issuance of ancestral domain titles

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The indigenous peoples of Northern Mindanao lamented that the government has yet to issue them their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs), 17 years after the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act was passed.

Datu Mandimate Conrado Binayao, tribal leader of the Bukidnon tribe in Manolo Fortich town in Bukidnon, said the document remains elusive.

A CADT is a government land tenurial instrumentation that determines and defines the boundaries of ancestral domain and ancestral lands.

Roberto Almonte, regional chief of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), admitted that there had been delays in the issuance of CADTs.

But he said of the 171 CADT applications that the agency had processed, some titles had already been released.

The delays in the release of some CADTs were due to overlapping claims and question of jurisdiction between the NCIP, the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

But the Bukidnon-based Tribal Indigenous Oppressed Group Association (Tindoga) said they have not seen a single CADT amid NCIP’s insistence that some had already been released to claimants.

The group said the NCIP would always claim that a CADT had been issued and the installation rite would be conducted.

“But there is no actual release of CADT,” Tindoga said.

Favoring the landlords

Datu Santiano Andong Agdahan, a Tindoga official, said they suspected that the delays or nonissuance of actual CADTs were a manipulation by the government to favor the rich and the landlords.

In Tigbao, Zamboanga del Sur, Subanen natives also decried the delays in the issuance of CADTs.

Subanen Timuay Joe Macarial said, for example, his group’s application had not been acted until now, 16 years after it was filed. Bobby Lagsa with a report from Tito Fiel, Inquirer Mindanao