BAGUIO CITY (Feb. 11)--Disgruntled over the manner by which the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) awards ancestral lands to fake ancestral claimants, descendants of Baguio pioneers Mateo and Bayosa Carino are preparing graft and illegal practice charges against the agency before the Ombudsman.
The Carino heirs, represented by Joaquin "Jack" Carino this week also revealed they will ask the Court of Appeals to revoke the Certificate of Ancestral Land Title issued by the NCIP over 78 hectares of land inside the Baguio Dairy Farm to heirs of Ikang Paus, another ancestral land claimant.
"The sheer magnitude of the award boggles the mind. 78 hectares is equivalent to 780,000 square meters. With a low estimated value of P2,000 per square meter, the amount involved in the award is P1.56 billion. This makes the NCIP officials responsible for the award liable for the crime of plunder," a statement of the Carino clan said.
The Carino heirs also opined that this case should impel the local government of Baguio and the national government to get involved. "We are calling upon the City Council to launch an inquiry in aid of legislation into the Baguio Dairy Farm award. We are calling for a congressional inquiry and even a senate inquiry in aid of legislation into all actions of the NCIP. Instead of protecting the indigenous peoples' rights, the NCIP has become an instrument for their oppression." the statement, issued on February 4, averred.
In a separate statement, the heirs of former Baguio Mayor Dr. Jose M. Carino, Joanna Carino, Jack Carino and Linda Grace Carino claimed that the NCIP has "wrongfully awarded" the area known as the Dairy Farm, Bureau of Animal Industry located at the foot of Mount Santo Tomas to the heirs of Ikang Paus notwithstanding the alleged fraudulence of their claims.
This, they said, was in complete disregard for earlier and legitimate claims of the heirs of Mateo and Bayosa Carino over the area, which they said was in direct violation of their own rules and procedures.
The Carino clan claim dates back to Sept. 6, 1990 when the Community Special Task Force on Ancestral Lands of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources was first set up. Called the Bayosa Ortega Case Over Chuyo was transmitted by the DENR to the NCIP in 1999 and refilled at the NCIP Baguio Office in 2005.
The DENR made a favorable recommendation to the Bayosa case in a decision penned by Atty Danilo Luna and Guillermo Fianza.
On the other hand, the Paus claim started with a certification dated May 9, 2003 from the NCIP signed by a certain Noela P. Zunega of behalf of Mr. Benedict Lumauig, certifying that they filed a petition for recognition and delineation of an ancestral land claim.
However, Atty. Reuben Dasay Lingating, then chairman of the NCIP issued Memorandum Order 256, dated June 09, 2003 saying the earlier certification was revoked and recalled for allegedly being "illegal, a gross misrepresentation, and in deirect violation" of an oreder directing Ms Zunega to refrain from making decisions in relation to ancestral domain applications.
On November 17, 2008, the Paus claim was suddenly transmitted from the National NCIP ancestral Domains Office to the Baguio Office with instructions to fast-track the application.
Within a period of 2 weeks after the transmittal from the national office, the resurrected claim of the Heirs of Ikang Paus had been completed, processed and endorsed by NCIP Baguio to the NCIP Commission En Banc, the statement said.
"We filed a protest against the Paus Claim at the NCIP Regional Hearing Office on December 8, 2008. The Regional Hearing Officer did not investigate the issues cited in the protest nor did he hear the case. He was of the position that the case was no longer under his jurisdiction, as the Paus claim was already up for decision at the Commission En Banc," it added.
"Again, this violates NCIP procedure as disputes at the local level should be heard by the Regional Hearing Officer, not the Commission En Banc. The Regional Hearing Officer even admitted that there was irregularity in the swiftness of action on the revived Paus claim, with the push coming from the national office," the statement also stated.
"We are outraged at the injustice and the swiftness of the landgrab perpetrated by the NCIP under Chairman Eugenio Insigne, under the office of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. If the NCIP can do this to the Cariño clan, with our legacy of the doctrine of Native Title, what more to the other marginalized indigenous peoples all over the country," the Carino heirs said.
Further, the Carino clan said "the NCIP En Banc thinks that we can be appeased by passing two resolutions (En Banc resolution Nos. 110 and 111, series of 2009) recognizing Ibaloi Chief Mateo Cariño as the father of the Doctrine of Native Title, and seeking to erect a monument in his honor and rename Camp John Hay after him."
"The gall! They grab your land, give it to fake claimants for whatever anyone can speculate they got in exchange, and then give you a resolution honoring your great grandfather," they said.The clan vows to pursue their claims over Chuyo through legal means, aside from taking the case to the bar of public opinion, and to the United Nations.-adam borja
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