Manila-based ring preying on Ibaloi claims uncovered
October 5, 2009, 7:20pm
BAGUIO CITY — Embattled representatives of an Ibaloi clan which claims a portion of Southdrive area in this mountain resort city as one of its ancestral land warned other claimants against the operation of a Manila-based syndicate that almost succeeded in illegally titling a bulk of a 24-hectare land which is to the disadvantage of legitimate claimants.
Some of the representatives of the heirs of Lauro Carantes, which has claims over a large portion of Southdrive, appealed to the public to beware of the alleged land grabbing syndicate who are working on large-scale dispensation of legitimate ancestral claims to the disadvantage of the real claimants.
They said the syndicate, which is led by a Manila-based lawyer, has been allegedly able to get hold of part of the land through a deed of assignment and transfer of rights signed by a certain Antino Carantes, one of the eight children of the late Luro Carantes.
They claimed the questionable deed of assignment and transfer of rights covered a total of 112,442 square meters or more than 10 hectares which is nearly one half of the ancestral claim of the Carantes.
However, the representative claimed Antino Carantes represented only one share of what his father owned, thus, he could not speak in behalf of the whole properties of his father.
Aside from Antino, the other children of Luaro Carantes are Adriano, Calixto (Fianza), Valentine, Placido, Crisanto, Adoracion (Comising), and Juliana (Balbines).
Sources disclosed that the Manila-based lawyer has been tagged by Land Registration Authority (LRA) head Benedicto Ulep, in a memorandum, as an alleged fixer.
Worst, a Manila-based company almost had the entire 112,442 square meters titled had not the Cordillera Small Business Assistance Center filed an adverse claim stopping the distribution of lands, especially in the ancestral claims in the region.
The disgruntled claimants pointed out that the Manila-based lawyer and his company should stop from interfering in the processing of the land claims of indigenous peoples, especially the heirs of Lauro Carantes and other legitimate ancestral land claimants in the city.
If the Manila-based lawyer was able to nearly fool the heirs of Lauro Carantes into giving up their claims, the concerned representatives warned the same could happen to other ancestral land claimants processing the titling of their claims under the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) which recognizes the existence of ancestral claims in the city provided that they had been existing prior to the passage of the said law.
IPRA empowers indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples to process the titling of their ancestral lands through the issuance of native titles in recognition of their ownership of the lands since time in memorial since the same was passed on from generation to generation
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