Indigenous Peoples’ Struggle for Secure Land Tenure in the Philippines: Case Study of Higaonon Tribe in Opol, Mindanao

Abstract

Indigenous peoples worldwide struggle for control over land and natural resources against encroachment of state interests, external development and commercial pressures such as agribusiness, dams, logging and mining. Their battle to protect land and natural resources is at the same time the struggle to preserve indigenous culture and traditions often inextricably linked to the land itself. The Philippine Indigenous Peoples Rights Act recognizes the indigenous peoples' rights to their ancestral lands and domains and offers a way of improving their land tenure security. The article employs case study design to illustrate the implementation gap between the rights of indigenous peoples in law and practice and the role different stakeholders play in securing indigenous peoples' land tenure and dealing with palm oil agribusiness and mining industries' interests in ancestral domains on the case of Higaonon tribe in Misamis Oriental province, Mindanao. The methodology for data collection was focus group discussions and key informant interviews with representatives of tribal leaders and members, non-government organizations and government bodies. Our results indicate that conflicting laws and mandates of various government bodies and lack of coordination between them, as well as lack of resources and political will to implement the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act are important factors behind slow issuance of ancestral domain titles. At the same time, we show that significant factor in the land tenure insecurity of indigenous peoples is disunity within the tribe and conflicting interests of its members and clans used by companies to further enhance their business interests.

The Struggle of Philippine Indigenous Peoples

“…NCIP does not have sufficient capacities and resources to conduct land surveys of these large areas claimed." (Drbohlav and Hejkrlik, 2017). In February 2017, the NCIP informant claimed that the plan is to conduct the land survey, delineation, and award CADT for Dulangan within the next six months.…”

“…People who were interviewed local NGO workers, tribal leaders, and representatives from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), representatives from provincial and nation Commission for Human Rights (CHR), and various representatives from provincial departmental offices. Through discussion among the focus group participants, the issues affecting the indigenous people were gathered (Drbohlav and Hejkrlik, 2017). The discussion created an open forum where people could freely air their views regarding the challenges affecting the indigenous people in the Philippines.…”

Displacement in the Name of Development. How Indigenous Rights Legislation Fails to Protect Philippine Hunter-Gatherers

“…The undesirability of development-induced displacement is generally acknowledged by the UN, the major development banks and many national governments. A growing body of safeguards issued by all of these institutions is in place to prevent displacement, and yet displacement is still highly prevalent around the world, particularly among indigenous peoples (Neef and Singer 2015;Cernea and Maldonado 2018), including those of the Philippines (Choi 2015;Gaspar 2015;Drbohlav and Hejkrlik 2017).…”

Institutional Land Passes Mastery Inheritance Pattern, on a Farm in the Highlands of Indonesia

“…On the sustainability of agricultural land management patterns traditionally passes on legacy systems, has narrowed the occurrence of land fragmentation, this contrasts with the results of some of the researchers who discovered the use of land conversion from land Agriculture to non agriculture, which resulted in the increasing settlement of land otherwise dwindling farmland (Spalding, 2017;Mmbaga, et al2017;Hanhm, et al, 2017;Miheretu & Yimer, 2017;Jin, et al, 2014), including in China has been going on land conversion quickly caused by acceleration industrialitation and urbanization, even the takeover of land in remote areas was carried out by means of force by the Government with financial compensation low (Hu & Ran, 2012), even the land area which was managed by farmers in Cambodia found very small and 55% of the land had been managed left (Nakalembe, et al, 2017). Similarly, the fragmentation of agricultural land into farm-land that was narrower, too much going on in some countries such as in Romania and other countries including in Indonesia (Susanti, et al, 2013;MAG-Petrescu, et al, 2017;Liet al, 2017), even including the Piliphina ownership of indigenous peoples over their ancestral lands and territories being hindered due to the application of the legislation was not to be applied and at the same time separating in the tribe and conflicting interest among members of the clan and used by the company to further enhance their business interests (Hejkrlik and Drbohlav, 2017).…”

“…Therefore required more attention on local political dynamics on the reform of ownership to increasingly give way to the contribution of non-State institutions such as the Institute of indigenous or other local institutions in the dominion land (Leeuwen Monday, 2014). In the Philippines there have been laws protect ownership against the rights of indigenous peoples over their ancestral lands and territories, though its implementation has not been fullest (Drbohlav & Hejkrlik, 2017), while in many places the land ownership has been give rise to a variety of conflicts (Ryder & Hall, 2017, rich, & Erol, 2017Ianoş, Sorensen, & Merciu, 2017). One of the reasons of occurrence of conflicts due to the takeover of ownership by means of eviction and the intervention of the Government (Peter Ho, 2014), there's even a customary leaders who sell agricultural land and land that has not been one to a stranger, for the purpose of residence, which caused the conflict and change the traditional livelihoods, plus the results of the sale are not enjoyed by the beneficiary, as well as those driven out of their lands by force (Peter Ho, 2014).…”