MindanaoToday.com | Bukidnon tribal group seeks for PBBM’s help
By: Uriel Quilinguing
Leaders of Kainteg Manobo-Pulangihon Tribal Association (KMPTA) in Quezon, Bukidnon have sought the assistance of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) on Tuesday, May 28, 2024 to enable them to repossess their ancestral land of 955 hectares that a private pineapple production corporation has been occupying for almost four decades.
After almost 25 years of waiting, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) finally recognized the legitimacy of the group on January 23, 2023, prompting the NCIP to issue the Certificate on Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) to them. KMPTA members, now numbering over 1,400 families, filed petitions for CADT before the NCIP on June 5, 1998.
Datu Rolando Anglao, tribal chieftain of Kaintig Manolo-Pulangihon Indigenous Cultural Community (KMP-ICC), in a press conference in Cagayan de Oro which Amnesty International (AI) organized, said only President Marcos can order the military and police to ensure a peaceful repossession of the land.
Prior to this, the NCIP served on April 30, 2022 a cease-and-desist order (CDO) to Kianteg Development Corporation (KDC) whose 25-year Forest Land and Grazing Management Agreement (FLGMA) expired on December 31, 2018. But KDC kept the land and ignored the CDO.
Anglao said the NCIP cannot direct military and police personnel to disarm the security guards of KDC, not even Quezon Mayor Pablo Lorenzo III, a former general manager of the sugarcane production company.
In fact, an attempt of KMPTA members, accompanied by a presidential and two senatorial candidates, to enter the land on April 19, 2022 was met with gunfire from KDC security guards which left five persons injured. Nobody was held accountable for what happened, after a police investigation result showing the firearms used were unlicensed and those who used them were not hired by a duly recognized security agency.
Jose Noel “Butch” Olano, section director of AI Philippines, said that prevent violence, a temporary outpost manned by military and police personnel should be established in the contested area, after they have disarmed the armed men KDC hired and the company had totally stopped operations.
Olano said it is unfair to red tag KMPTA members because they have waited this long because they trust our government and what the agencies can do to install them back to the land that belongs to them. They have been deprived of their basic human rights for so long, he said.
Bae Maria Teresa Madula, who leads the women members of KMPTA, said they have no permanent and comfortable home and source of livelihood, no safe source of water, and their children can hardly go to school. She said they long for a day these and other basic needs are within their reach, and having their ancestral land back is the ultimate answer.
Prior to the issuance of FLGMA by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to KDC in 1993, the over a thousand land was leased sometime in 1986 to Cesar Fortich Incorporated, the original corporate name of KDC.
All these years, Manobo-Pulangihon community members, had to occupy the vacant spaces on both sides of Sayre National Highway at Kianteg Botong and San Jose villages. (30)
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