BAGUIO CITY--THE HEIRS of Baguio pioneer Mateo Carino and wife Bayosa Ortega this week conceded that any favorable action from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) on their ancestral land claims at the old Baguio Dairy Farm will have to wait until after the elections.
Joaquin “Jack” Carino on Thursday revealed the NCIP en banc is about to go on recess this week without changing its original stance on the 78-hectare property at the Baguio Dairy Farm awarded to the heirs of another ancestral land claimant, Ikang Paus.
Carino added that the alleged offer by the NCIP to award to them 25 hectares of the original 98-hectare property was a token effort to appease the clan. He said accepting such an offer would be like admitting that the Paus clan are legitimate ancestral land claimants and thereby alter the historical context of the property initially called Chuyo by the early Ibalois residing in the Baguio area.
Meanwhile, the Paus clan sent feelers to the Chronicle they will address the issue “at the proper time and forum” and begged off from giving further comments.
As this developed, Carino said they intend to pursue their claim by filing fraud, graft and perhaps even plunder charges against NCIP Commissioner Eugenio Ensigne and seven others.
“This is a classic case of identity theft,” Cariño said. “They took our history and our great-grandparents’ particulars, and claimed them to be theirs. It’s ridiculous how an office that calls itself an NCIP can sanction such maneuverings,” he said.
The Carinos noted that the Paus claim is riddled with loopholes, such as their claim of religiously paying taxes on the property in question since 1918. Tax receipts attached to their file are all new and dated 2008, they alleged. In fact the DENR, in a letter dated April 29, 1996, and addressed to the Paus family, held in abeyance the Paus’s claim pending submission of their alleged tax declaration dated 1918, Cariño said.
“How can such large-scale fraud happen under the very office that is supposed to protect indigenous people’s rights?” Carino asked.
He elaborated that the value of the said property along the boundaries of Baguio and Tuba municipality is estimated at P5,000 per square meter . At 90 hectares or 900,000 square meters, the estimated total value of the area is around P4.5 billion.
With developments, the property value within a year is expected to increase four-fold, Carino said. Reportedly, surveyors of a giant property firm are already surveying the area fueling speculations that the property had already been sold even prior to the issuance of the CALT.
The Carino case is the latest in a string of related investigations involving the NCIP’s questionable award of Certificates of Ancestral Land Titles (CALTs) over vast areas of Baguio City.
Late last year, the Office of the Solicitor-General has started investigating the alleged unlawful awarding and sale of a 23-hectare portion of the Forbes Park watershed and forest reservation near Pacdal.
Earlier, the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 60, granted the city government’s petition for a 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) to enjoin the Register of Deeds from acting on any transactions that involved controversial land titles.
A civil case has been filed by the local government of Baguio against the NCIP and the alleged property owners. The city legal office has also filed before the Office of the Ombudsman an administrative case against NCIP Commissioners Ensigne, Rolando Rivera, Rizalino Segundo, Atty. Noel Filongco, Jannette Serrano-Riesland, Felicito Masagnay, and Miguel Imbing Apostol who awarded the forested Forbes Park reservation to the heirs of Lauro Carantes.
Forbes Park is one of the few remaining forested areas in Baguio City that includes portions of Camp John Hay, the Botanical Garden (now renamed Centennial Park), Ilusorio Park near the Baguio Country Club, and Panagbenga Park at Camp John Hay’s old main gate.—adam o. borja
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