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By Inday Espina-Varona
1st of 4 parts
GENERAL SANTOS CITY–Almost two years since the
Supreme Court granted lumad their right to 932 hectares of
indigenous land here, squatter encroachment and claimants’
disputes have threatened that legal victory.
“Walang katapusan ang gulo diyan [There’s no
end to the troubles there].”
Lito, 43, a driver for a car rental agency
here, is a Christian, with roots in Panay, in the Western Visayas.
From any perspective, he has nothing to do with the long-standing
land battle in Sitio Lanton, Barrio Apopong, between indigenous
peoples and the powerful Alcantara clan.
But his wife’s yearning for land to call their
own has dragged Lito into the fray. The couple now spend their
nights arguing, whether or not to kiss the P2,500 goodbye they
forked over for the right to settle on the disputed land.
Lito’s neighbor, Emilio, who owns several
jeepneys, says he paid P8,000 for a bigger lot–200 meters. Except
for nondescript receipts, lacking even a corporate name and having
only an illegible scribble to signify they had received funds,
neither family can show documents on their land stakes.
Emilio isn’t bothered by the lack of legal
niceties. One of his sons, he boasts, now lives in a shack on the
outskirts of the land awarded by the Supreme Court, ready “to take
over when the time comes.”
Lito would rather not tangle with resentful
indigenous tribes. “Mahirap lang ako, masakit mawala ’yung pera.
Pero kung sa P2,500 dadanak pa ang dugo, di bale na. [I’m poor and
it hurts to lose money. But if P2,500 will spill blood, I don’t
want anything to do with it].”
Confusion
Contending parties to the long-standing land
battle cite numerous arguments to explain why those 932 hectares of
land have yet to be distributed to the petitioners, who are members
of the B’laan and Maguindanao tribes.
The Supreme Court ruling upheld a Court of
Appeals decision recognizing the recommendation of the Commission
on the Settlement of Land Problems to cancel Nicasio Alcantara’s
Forest Land Grazing Lease Agreement (FLGLA) 542, issued in 1993 and
expiring on December 31, 2019.
The Supreme Court agreed with the appellate
court on two key issues:
1. That Alcantara, in pursuing his claim with
the commission, had accepted its jurisdiction over the controversy;
and
2. That Alcantara had not disproved the
lumad’s claim to have possessed and tilled the land since time
immemorial (or more than 30 years).
The claimants and their champion, former
Environment and Natural Resources secretary Heherson Alvarez, blame
the delay on rearguard action by the powerful Alcantara clan that
occupies more than 7,000 hectares of pasture and timberland here.
They rail against incumbent Environment Secretary Elisea G.
Gozun’s order to hold the implementation of an Alvarez memorandum
for immediate settlement.
Gozun, on the other hand, insists her order
upholds the Supreme Court’s judgment, by ensuring that
“proper” claimants are finally settled on the land. She warns
that installing people without verifying their legitimate claim on
the awarded area could flare up a new cycle of violence on an
already bloodied land.
The city government here has also stepped into
the row, giving the go-ahead for the relocation of 100 squatter
families on a 42-hectare portion that, it says, has been segregated
as a relocation site. That order, given in February, has led to the
building of scores of shanties in the area–and the appearance of
armed men claiming to be guardians of the poor and dispossessed.
Alcantara’s family meanwhile fights on,
doggedly pursuing every legal avenue in a case that it has lost
every step of the way. Spokesmen for the clan emphasize they are not
contravening court decisions, merely ensuring that the resolution of
the case does not affect their other landholdings.
The clan is also fighting another battle for a
1,325-hectare property in Cabuay, Sinawal, where 400 squatter
families have set up homes, to the consternation of a cooperative
that has laid claim to the land.
Alcantara has questioned Alvarez’s
installation orders at the Court of Appeals. The Court, however, has
not issued a temporary restraining order pending hearing of the case
merits, noting that Gozun’s order has effectively granted that.
Cattle move
In an interview with The Manila Times, Gozun
explained she has not overturned any Court ruling or even
Alvarez’s order.
“I’m only trying to enforce an orderly
installation and even the claimants have said they are happy now
because this way, they know they’ll really get what is due
them.”
In a meeting last Wednesday with claimants and
the city government, all parties agreed to the issuance of an order
today (Monday) for the start of the perimeter survey of the land.
Intervenors to the case, the Pendatun, Mula and
Gawan clans, have also been told to submit their genealogical survey
to the National Commission on Indigenous People’s (NCIP).
Gozun estimates the land survey will take a
month to complete.
In the meantime, she said, the situation at the
disputed estate should remain “as is, where is.”
Jesus Montemayor, administrator of the Alcantara
estate, told The Times that Gozun’s directive doesn’t seem to be
holding up.
A police task force assigned to keep peace in
the area is also ineffective, he complained.
“They haven’t done anything. Some of the
claimants have brought in tractors, especially with the onset of
rains.”
While Paglangan was awarded 300 hectares, this
has not been delineated yet by any government agency. His group,
according to Montemayor, has scatted across estate, even occupying
the livestock corral.
“We’ve counted 45 missing heads since
January,” said Montemayor.
As a result, Nicasio has had to transfer his
cattle to the Cabuay estate, which is covered by FLGLA No. 552.
Palace hand
At the center of the dispute is Alvarez.
Depending on which side is talking, Alvarez is
either a victim of vested interests with powerful patrons in Malacañang,
or a wheeler-dealer whose penchant for shortcuts and execution of a
midnight order may have jeopardized an otherwise legitimate claim.
Alvarez is not known to shirk fights. He took on
big landowners in the Diwalwal land dispute and won some qualified
victory. With the Alcantaras, however, he has found his Waterloo.
More than a year before, Alvarez acted on the
Supreme Court’s order that upheld the Court of Appeals decision
recognizing the lumad’s right to the 923-hectare land leased by
Alcantara. The Supreme Court ruled in July 2001. On November 22,
2002, Alvarez upheld the tribe’s right to their lands.
Eight days later, President Arroyo dismissed Alvarez from her
Cabinet, but allowed him to stay until December 15, 2002. On
December 10 Alvarez signed the final order to transfer the lands to
the tribal claimants.
Alvarez is mum on details of the December 11
Malacañang meeting with President Arroyo and Gozun that led to his
summary dismissal.
His aides, however, told The Manila Times: “It
was stormy. When he came back, he started packing up.”
“We know he was asked to rescind his order. We
know he said no,” the senior Alvarez added.
As a result of that meeting, Gozun’s takeover of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources was advanced to December 13.
Immediately, she put the settlement proceedings on hold.
‘Dilatory tactics’
Alvarez has assailed Gozun’s order to maintain
the status quo pending verification of the proper lumad
beneficiaries. He says Gozun’s move defies the Supreme Court’s
decision.
He chides her for not respecting her mandate.
Gozun’s “dilatory tactics,” he says, “has subverted the
Supreme Court’s decision allowing the legal tribal owners to take
possession of the 923 hectares.”
Alvarez makes no bones about his bias in the
case. He calls for the immediate return of the land to the
claimants, pinpointing the massive displacement of indigenous
peoples as the root cause of Mindanao’s social conflict.
He points out that the Alcantara family has more than 7,269 hectares
of grazing and timber land in General Santos City alone,
representing 12 percent of the city’s total land area. The family
also owns 2,000 hectares of titled land in neighboring Abel town in
Sarangani province, he adds.
Possession of this hectarage “is a clear
violation of the Constitution,” Alvarez says, citing the limit of
landownership to 500 hectares.
Alvarez’s legal adviser, Eddie Tamondong,
dismisses Gozun’s claim of wanting to ensure due process.
“We’re talking 13 years, since the B’laan
filed their claim,” he told The Times. “This has gone through
every possible administrative, quasi-judicial and judicial
proceedings. If anything, for the B’laan, this is a case of
delayed justice.”
Gozun, Tamondong notes, cannot undo a Supreme
Court verdict. All she can do, he adds, is enforce a final and
executory judgment.
The continuing word war has embarrassed
President Arroyo, though it is not the first time she has been
caught in the crossfire of warring allies.
It’s no secret that the Alcantaras have clout.
Nicasio is president of Petron Corp. and is part of a previously
close-knit group of informal advisers to Mrs. Arroyo. His brother,
Thomas Alcantara, is the brother- in-law of former Mindanao
presidential adviser Paul Dominguez.
Shortcuts
Gozun denies those ties have something to do
with her decision. Paul, too, says any discussion of the issue
stopped with Nicasio–though that statement contradicts Thomas’
presence at the December 11 Palace meeting.
Alvarez insists the one-year delay following the
Supreme Court’s decision was due to bureaucratic red tape, and
Alcantara’s persistence in placing every obstacle to the Court’s
ruling.
A senior aide of Nicasio, however, hints at a
falling-out within that period. Alvarez, he alleges, had approached
the Alcantaras, offering his help in the controversy–an offer that
was “turned down politely,” for unknown reasons. Alvarez admits
going to Alcantara but denies attaching any condition to his offer
of help.
Gozun acknowledges that the Commission on the
Settlement of Land Problems recommended canceling Alcantara’s
request for a renewal of FLGLA 542 (insert), segregation of 300
hectares from the 932 hectares as requested by a B’laan
petitioner, Rolando Paglangan, and the declaration of 932 hectares
as ancestral lands of the B’laan.
A former activist, Gozun says she doesn’t take
lightly the hunger of the lumad. Her caution, she adds, is meant to
ensure that the rightful claimants take possession of the land and
till this to assuage what the commission describes as “ongoing
famine” among the lumad communities.
Procedural lapses by the environment department
under Alvarez, she notes, also endangered the rights of the rightful
claimants. Department officials had allegedly allowed the entry of
settlers but failed to segregate the 300 hectares claimed by
Paglangan and his coclaimants.
More important, the department had failed to
settle the identities of the actual complainants, as provided by the
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act, which it could have done with the
help of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
Gozun has started coordinating with the city
government, the national commission and the claimants to do
perimeter surveys delineating ancestral claims.
Gozun, however, says those ties have nothing to
do with her decision.
Maneuvers
Gozun’s fears are valid.
At least 2,900 urban-poor stakeholders have set up households on
portions of the B’laan’s 923 hectares, many having bought their
rights from Paglangan.
The City Housing and Land Management Office here (CHLMO) also
received complaints in March on the alleged collection of funds by
barangay officials, ostensibly to give squatters’ rights to a
42.86-hectare relocation site.
The problem is that the relocation site intrudes
into the tribal claims upheld by the Supreme Court.
CHLMO chief Ramon Brotarlo says the complaints
tag Delia Rabanes, Apopong barangay chairman and councilor, as
having collected P460 from occupants for a land survey.
He warns that any transaction done this way is
illegal and that only the environment department is authorized to
survey the disputed land–and for free. Any distribution of lots in
the area, he adds, is illegal, because it needs a presidential
proclamation declaring the area alienable and disposable before it
is subdivided into lots for sale.
Brotarlo’s statements, however, are
contradicted by General Santos City Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr., who
insists that all public lands in his city are the property of the
local government by virtue of its charter.
Rabanes is Acharon’s political ally, as is
Baluan barangay chairman Winnie Estrellan, who has also sent some
families to the “relocation center.” Other barangay chiefs who
have sent their own “delegations” are Siguel chairman Victor
Jugarap and Calumpang chairman Cirilo Forones.
“The situation is very dangerous,”
acknowledges Councilor Abing Zoilo, chairman of the Committee on
Urban Poor, Social Services and Public Estate. He admits that most
of the new shanties are owned by nonclaimants.
Acharon says the newly settled land is in excess
of Alcantara’s allowable lease space.
But Ana Paglangan, Rolando’s wife and party to
the claim, says they have not yet closed a deal with the city
government. “The excess area has yet to be identified,” she
says.
Spillover
It is ironic that Gozun’s concern for the
rightful claimants is the same reason being cited here for the
influx of squatters.
Worse, her order has affected nearby Cabuay, in
Sinawal, where the local cooperative is up in arms against 400
people who have occupied the land. The area, near another leased
land of Alcantara, is also subject to a separate indigenous claim.
The Alcantaras have also lost the case there,
involving FLGLA 552, issued to Feliciano Alcantara.
The petitioners for that parcel of land, led by
Leonardo T. Fuentes of the Sinawal Multipurpose B’laan Farmers’
Cooperative, had also sought the settlement commission’s help in
reversing the 620 hectares initially granted to Luis de Jesus in
1965 and later sold to Feliciano.
As in the case of Nicasio’s disputed land,
Feliciano lost the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which
affirmed last October 7 the appellate court’s ruling in favor of
the B’laan cooperative.
Fuentes’ group acknowledges Gozun is
well-meaning. But the delay caused by her order, they say, has
encouraged squatters to encroach on their land, so as to be in place
once the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples finalizes the
list of legitimate beneficiaries.
Fuentes says the B’laan can do nothing about
it, short of armed defense. And he warns that as the winning
claimants once again find themselves pushed out of the land by
usurpers, tempers could fray, leading to a new cycle of unrest.
Allegations that Supt. Efren Alcuisar, chief of
the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Mindanao, and a
nephew of Acharon have used armed men to place their own occupants,
have also increased tension in the area.
The cooperative there accuses the B’laan tribe
leader Alberto Bantilan of bringing in 400 people into the area. The
Mula clan, which has also laid claim to the Apopong land, also
insists on a stake in Cabuay.
“The lines are becoming blurred,” warns
Abing. “It’s very important that the claimants cooperate with
the national commission to come up with the list of legal
claimants.”
That, however, may be an almost impossible task
when the claimants themselves squabble among each other.
Part 2
| Sidebar to Part 2 | Part
3 | Conclusion
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