Chuyo Updates

Early this morning, my sister Jessica brought some folders to the national office of the NCIP in Quezon city. These folders contained the following:

1. Certified xerox copy of the file of the Heirs of Mateo Carino and Bayosa Ortega docketed as BC-0364-CJ presently undergoing processing by the NCIP Baguio office since 2004, including earlier documents from the DENR CSTFAL.

2. Protest filed by the Heirs of Mateo Carino and Bayosa Ortega against the Petition for Validation of CALC and for Issuance of CALT by the Heirs of Ikang Paus docketed as BC-0122-GVJ, dated December 9 2008.

3. Order of the NCIP Regional Hearing Office CAR on the above mentioned protest, dated December 10, 2008, which advised the Commission en banc to suspend deliberations on the CALT application of the Paus family.

Jessica had these folders received in the offices of four commissioners, and by the clerk for the 3 other commissioners. Only one commissioner, Commissioner Rizalino Segundo of Region 2, was present. He informed her that the Commission en banc had already deliberated on the Paus claim positively, in a meeting in Baguio. Since this was endorsed favorably by the NCIP Baguio Officer Gladys Lasdacan, NCIP CAR Regional Director Amador-Batay-an, and Ancestral Domains Officer Myrna Caoagas, the Commissioners are ready and just waiting to sign the resolution awarding the CALT to the Heirs of Ikang Paus.

NCIP Chair Eugenio Insigne was not in his office. Jessica was informed that he would be out for the day, and would be going to Malacanang tomorrow. Hopefully, this visit to Malacanang does not have anything to do with Chuyo.

In a phone call this morning, Commissioner Insigne informed UNPFII Chair Victoria Tauli-Corpuz that the Commission was deliberating on awarding 67 hectares to the Paus family because they showed proof that they developed the area for 60 years.

These developments look bad not only for the Carino claim, but more so for the NCIP, whose mandate is to uphold the rights and well-being of the indigenous peoples. We hope that with proper consideration of the submitted documents, the NCIP Commission en banc will realize the validity of the Carino claim, and give due recognition to our rights to our ancestral land that we have long been fighting for since as early as the American colonial regime.

May the Commissioners be guided by the wisdom of our ancestors and by their commitment to uphold the rights of the rightful claimants and the indigenous people in the country.

And to the descendants of Bayosa: Hey folks, get moving. Don't be a sitting duck in this brazen case of corruption presently unfolding.

A Land Scam in the Making

Engineer Victor Bumatnong of NCIP Baguio Office,

and Atty. Stacey Ann Dumalan of Department of Agriculture

conducted ocular survey of Chuyo with the descendants of

Mateo Carino and Bayosa Ortega

on February 7, 2008.

Despite going through an ocular and actual survey of our family's ancestral land claim over Chuyo, the NCIP Baguio Office recently endorsed the claim of the Heirs of Ikang Paus, over the same piece of land to the Commission en banc.

The processing of fraudulent CALTs by the NCIP may be the next big money-making venture for enterprising NCIP officials.

Resuscitating a Dead Cat

This cat has died many times over. But its creators rage against this fact, and employ black magic to resuscitate the dead.

You can find here and here some links to some chapters in the saga of the ancestral land claim of the Heirs of Ikang Paus to the Baguio Dairy Farm in Chuyo, Baguio city.

Here, and here, you can find decisions from the Court of Appeals on a preliminary injunction issued by the NCIP Regional Hearing Office to the Heirs of Ikang Paus.

Close Encounters With Corruption

94 hectares in Chuyo

is the object of greed and corruption.

I have always known that our government is corrupt. But now, I have the opportunity to witness it up close and personal, as a scam presently unfolds.

 Allow me to share with you updates of our dealings with the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), as we try to get a CALT to  our ancestral land in Chuyo. Being one of the last undeveloped wide areas in Baguio, this land is coveted by the greedy and unscrupulous. Not all the main characters in this drama have been identified yet, but will soon be, as events will soon disclose whose sticky hands are in the pie.

For a background, Chuyo belonged to the family of Bayosa Ortega four generations back. Cows grazed there. A portion was planted to camote. And a few family homes were scattered in the hillsides. It is said that among some rocks in a steep slope are the bones of our ancestors.

In 1920, a survey plan of the area was applied for and approved by the Bureau of Lands in Bayosa's name. Also in her name is a tax declaration over the property dated July 6, 1929. In 1945, then President Manuel L. Quezon issued Executive Proclamation 603 which declared roughly 94 hectares of Bayosa's land as public reservation for animal breeding purposes. This is now known as the Dairy Farm located at Green Valley. Since then, our family has been deprived of our rights to our ancestral land.

With  openings in recent legislation to correct historical injustice (eg. DAO 2, IPRA), the family pursued our claims, first under the DENR, and presently under the NCIP. Unfortunately, these claims, though backed by hard documentary evidence, never prospered to this date.

In 2002, I first got personally involved, when we built a small house inside the Dairy Farm. This was my first taste of the corruption and violence involved in attending to ancestral land claims in Baguio city.

In 2004, we filed our application for CALT in the NCIP Baguio office. We complied with all requirements and steps. And this slow and painful process has finally brought us nearer to our goal, as we had accomplished a survey of the Dairy Farm last November 14, 2008, in the presence of officials of the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Animal Industry, and the NCIP.

However, while following up and waiting for the good engineer of NCIP Baguio to finalize his report on the survey, we discovered that another family claimant, with no relation to the Carinos, is like a galloping stallion to our handicapped mare, and is winning the race to the finish line.

We were informed in the NCIP Baguio office, that this other family was able to accomplish in two weeks what we were striving to do, for the past two decades. Well, I believe this is a scam in the making, and I hope getting people aware of these facts will help put a stop to this brazen sins of corruption happening in our midst.

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