LET’S PROTECT ANCESTRAL DOMAINS!

A bill has been filed in the House of Representatives (HOR), proposing some major revisions to the Indigenous People’s Republic Act, otherwise known as the IPRA Law. Many leaders in the Indigenous People’s (IP) communities are opposed to most of the revisions, particularly the provisions that would transfer certain functions from the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to the DENR. In my opinion, the IPRA Law in itself is already defective to begin with, and it seems that the proposed revisions in House Bill 9608 would tend to weaken the original law further. Although it is still a gray area to begin with, I think that the defect in the law stems from the fact that it only allows the IPs reasonable use of the lands, instead of giving them full ownership to these. In the United States, the native Americans are “allocated” certain lands that are classified as “Indian reservations”, but in reality, the Indian tribes only have the rights to “occupy” these lands, and not the rights to own them like real estate properties. I think that we should revise the existing IPRA Law so that the ancestral lands will become the communal properties of the IPs, except that they should not be allowed to sell these. As a matter of fact, the other way around should happen, meaning that they should be allowed to buy other pieces of land that are adjacent or nearby. IKE SENERES/09088877282/1-26-24