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By Fritz Dacpano, Researcher
(First of two parts)
A DEAD chicken hung on the fence of the Dumagat
chieftain Alberto Ramos one late afternoon in Sitio Karahume. The
sitio is one of the communities in the tribe’s ancestral domain
that are caught in a land dispute between the municipality of
Rodriguez, Rizal, and San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan. Ramos feared
the chicken presaged his own death.
“Sabi po nila, yung mga nakakaintindi, eh yun
po ay isang babala na maaaring may mangyari sa iyo, kung baga,
‘ganito ang gagawin ko sa iyo’ [Those who understood the omen
interpreted it as a warning for me. It was telling me, ‘This is
what I will do to you’],” he said.
“[There are no shootouts in these parts, only
kidnappings. The shootouts happen in Sitio Balagbag],” Ramos
continued.
Within just two years two former barangay
captains, Onesa and Oliveros, have been kidnapped and murdered. Two
others recently abducted were Virgilio Vargas and Ogie Estanislao.
They were never found.
Ramos said he did not know the murderers, but he
had strong suspicions that land dispute was the motive for the
crimes.
“The abductions are rooted in land disputes.
Many people are interested in the land. The others may be allowing
themselves to be used or are being used by prominent people. We know
that someone important is responsible here, but we lack evidence on
who is behind the abductions,” added Ramos.
The land in question is the 1,817 hectares given
to the Dumagat tribe by the Philippine government in February 2004.
The ancestral domain sits between the provinces of Bulacan and Rizal.
However, a large portion within Bulacan’s
borders is being claimed by the municipal government of Rodriguez
(formerly Montalban), Rizal. Illegal settlers and organizations also
live in the area.
Sitio Karahume is one of the communities in the
Dumagats’ ancestral domain that are in dispute.
Aware that violence is viewed as a form of
aggressive negotiation in Karahume and other sitios in the uplands,
Ramos and his fellow tribesmen took part in a “Marksmanship and
Defensive Tactics Orientation Training” given by the Philippine
National Police in January 2005.
“We were trained so we could defend our land.
We have been treated this way because they know that we have no
knowledge of arms training. That is why we were taught how to take
apart and reassemble an M-16. We are fed up with the harassment
against us,” he said.
Ramos underwent arms training a year after the
Dumagats living near the Bulacan-Rizal border received from the
National Commission on Indigenous People a certificate of ancestral
domain title covering more than 18 million square meters. The
certificate meant that the Dumagats could live freely on that land.
Intrusion
Since the Commonwealth period under President
Manuel L. Quezon, the Dumagats have settled in the forests as one of
the indigenous tribes in Central Luzon and the Southern Tagalog
region, thriving on kaingin, or slash-and-burn agriculture. Their
name is taken from the words gubat (forest) and hubad (naked).
For years they moved from one forest to another
to survive, but always came back to Karahume and the nearby villages
for their home.
But everything changed when the late businessman
Vicente Puyat of Manila Brickworks Inc. came to set up business in
the area. In no time red brick structures of the Puyat ranch
replaced the thick forest cover. The ranch was set up to raise
cattle.
“Puyat bulldozed the mango trees that grew
beside every hut,” said Marcelino San Jose, a former Dumagat
chieftain.
Armed men followed suit, hired by Manila
Brickworks to guard the ranch.
According to San Jose, many of the indigenous
settlers who were unwilling to pay P700 for three hectares of land
were driven away. Thus, nearly half of the Dumagats in the area were
forced to move to the hills near the Puyat property.
San Jose said his elders decided to leave
Karahume because they could not afford to pay the P700 and they
feared the armed men.
“They [the elders] don’t want trouble. Men
armed with armalites patrolled the area,” he said in Tagalog.
“The elders were scattered and the children were forced to leave
to avoid violence.”
Eventually, the cattle ranch that displaced the
Dumagat tribe suffered losses, driving the Puyat family to venture
into pineapple farming and poutry-raising.
The new agribusiness also failed, the family
running up heavy losses.
Manila Brickworks was forced to sign an
agreement with Camella & Palmera Homes in 1995 to pursue a
housing and development project.
Philip Yambao, a representative of the National
Commission on Indigenous People and a Dumagat, said the commission
is trying to trace the land titles owing to reports that the Puyat
family has pawned the entire ranch to the defunct Capitol Bank for
development by Palmera Homes, both owned by Sen. Manuel Villar.
Yambao and the Dumagat leaders speculated that
the Central Bank holds the land titles after Capitol Bank closed
down.
“If the lands will be possessed by the Central
Bank, where will we go?” San Jose asked. “We have nowhere to go
but farther toward the higher areas.”
He expressed fears that the Central Bank might
take away the land they occupy or sell it to someone else.
“It is only now that Karahume is coming to the
fore,” San Jose said.
Insecurity
Although the Dumagats were given the right to
develop, control and manage the lands under the certificate of
ancestral domain title (CADT), the feeling of insecurity persists.
“We still face many problems such as the ones
about the Indigenous People’s Rights Act. We wonder why we have
lands but do not feel secure,” said San Jose.
The CADT, dated February 18, 2004, and signed by
Chair Reuben Dasay A. Lingating of the National Commission on
Indigenous People, granted the ancestral domain to the Dumagats in
Norzagaray and San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan, and Montalban
(Rodriguez), Rizal.
Under the Indigenous People’s Rights Act, an
indigenous tribe is granted an ancestral domain as part of
recognizing, protecting and promoting its rights to preserve its
cultural community.
The title, however, was signed three months
before the presidential election in May 2004, raising suspicions
that politics was behind the issuance.
Although the area under the CADT is a
collective, communal property, and so “shall not be sold, disposed
or destroyed,” the title might not give the security promised by
the law after all.
Encroachment
As the search goes on for the documents to
verify the legitimacy of the Puyat ownership, the jurisdictional
claim of the municipality of Rodriguez on some parts of the
ancestral domain and San Jose del Monte City is muddling the issue
further.
Karahume, according to some officials of
Rodriguez, belongs to their municipality. They base their claim on a
land title of a certain Jose Garcia that covers some areas in the
sitio and on the record of tax payments made by his heirs to
Rodriguez.
Ramos recalled how the group of Mayor Pedro
Cuerpo of Rodriguez, accompanied by men in military uniform, arrived
one day and claimed the ancestral domain to be a titled land owned
by the heirs of Garcia.
Danilo Santos, a member of the team that visited
Karahume, confirmed the legitimacy of the Rodriguez claim. “We
claim only parts that belong to Montalban [Rodriguez] because titled
lots such as in Karahume were registered in the municipality,” he
said.
Ramos, however, insists that Karahume is well
within the bounds of the ancestral domain based on the CADT.
He stressed that his tribe recognizes Mayor
Angelito Sarmiento of San Jose del Monte City as its political
leader, not Cuerpo.
Checkpoints
Ramos and the other Dumagats are perturbed by a
checkpoint set up in Sitio Licao-Licao, which they believe is part
of the ancestral domain despite its location in Barangay Macabud,
Rodriguez, Rizal. Mayor Cuerpo is also building roads in the area
leading to Mount Balagbag.
“At times a Dumagat passing through the land
is suddenly stopped at the checkpoint,” Ramos said.
A map from the National Mapping and Resource
Information Authority (Namria) shows that Sitios Karahume, Inuman
and Balagbag going toward Mount Balagbag are remote from the Rizal
boundary line.
Despite this proof, Cuerpo’s men are
collecting fees at the checkpoint. No payment and registration at
the Montalban municipal building means no entry for the residents.
Thus, every person who goes up Mount Balagbag
from the Licao-Licao checkpoint and who lives in the sitio is asked
to pay P500 as “tagging” fee. The fee is for a tag or sticker
indicating that the passerby is a legitimate resident.
Every resident is also asked to pay an
additional P8,000, P3,000 for the survey of the land occupied by the
resident; P5,000 for setting up the boundaries of the surveyed lots.
“Why do they have to make us pay?” asked a
Balagbag resident, who gave the information about the fees. He
complained that they did not have enough money for food, yet they
were forced to pay fees to a mayor who they believe was overstepping
his power.
Santos, also officer in charge of the checkpoint
at Rodriguez, said the checkpoint was set up to ward off illegal
settlers who are going to Mount Balagbag, at the foot of which lie
Karahume, Inuman and Balagbag.
He said war veterans under the Camarin-Bagong
Silang or “Cambasi” group have been illegally selling lands to
people at Mount Balagbag. The Cambasi group is claiming 849 hectares
called “5211” in the area, a portion of which is under the CADT.
Santos said about 500 buyers have been victimized.
Besides the war veterans, Santos said most of
the illegal settlers are in fact well-off. Some of them are seamen,
teachers and employees of the National Police Commission, Department
of Public Works and Highways and the Commission on Audit.
“The Cambasi has arms. There have been
killings. In one day 10 houses are being built,” said Yambao.
“The Cambasi has already settled there, so it won’t be easy to
make the group leave. The Cambasi will fight for it.”
Gentleman’s agreement
Despite the absence of a formal agreement
between the provinces of Bulacan and Rizal over the boundary
dispute, the Rodriguez municipal government took it upon itself to
set up the checkpoint, screen the settlers and collect fees the
ancestral domain.
Rep. Eduardo Roquero, the mayor of San Jose del
Monte City before Sarmiento took office, said the status quo has to
be maintained based on a gentleman’s agreement with Cuerpo, while
recognizing the problem of the Dumagats and squatting in the area.
“The last agreement was that the status quo
should be respected,” Roquero said of his previous meeting with
Cuerpo. This meant that the disputed area, which he estimated at 400
hectares, was to be protected.
Municipal officers of Rodriguez insist that the
boundary lines drawn in NAMRIA’s map are not reliable. “[The
boundary] in NAMRIA’s map is not official. The map is only for the
use of forest rangers,” Santos said.
He noted that Mayor Cuerpo and Representative
Roquero, then-mayor of San Jose del Monte City, agreed to put up
P500,000 each to enable NAMRIA to conduct a joint survey of the
border. “The provincial governments didn’t want to move;
that’s why the two local governments acted on it.”
But the survey hit a snag and did not push
through as planned.
“NAMRIA made a ‘shortcut’ in its
survey,” Santos said. “That is why Montalban [Rodriguez] is
questioning the map. It doesn’t want to accept the boundary based
on NAMRIA survey.”
He pointed out that the task of following up the
joint survey was not turned over smoothly by the previous to the
present city administration of San Jose del Monte. “We are back to
zero,” Santos said.
He said the Rodriguez municipal government has
always adhered to “due process” through public hearings.
“We have due process. We have put up streamers
announcing public hearings and requiring all structures to be
registered. All collections of fees are backed up by a
resolution,” Santos said.
Although he expressed confidence that Cuerpo
would return all fees collected if Karahume is declared part of San
Jose del Monte City, Santos was unsure when asked if the money would
be returned if a new mayor wins the next municipal election in
Rodriguez. He said there are documents listing residents who paid
the amount.
Issuing a challenge
“Kaya nga sinasabi namin, ‘Kung kaya ninyong
patayin ang titulong nakapaloob sa inyo, gawin ninyo’ [That’s
why we are saying, ‘If you can disprove the authenticity of the
title to your domain, then do it],” said Santos, challenging the
Dumagats and the National Commission on Indigenous People.
“What happened is that the Dumagat title
replaced the land titles from as far back as 1966. That is why if I
own the lot, we will have to settle in court,” Santos said.
Further defending Cuerpo, he said that besides
preventing the cutting of the trees in the nearby watershed, the
Rodriguez municipal government wants to stop illegal settlers from
setting up their homes near Mount Balagbag. “After being duped
into buying rights in the area, they suddenly find out that the land
they bought is owned by another.”
Santos said complaints from legitimate claimants
whose titles are registered in Rodriguez are increasing.
“Once the squatters set foot on the lands of
the legitimate titleholders, we can even be sued
administratively,” he said. “People used to go up there without
much trouble, but we have to be strict because the number of
settlers is growing.”
[At this point in the interview, I witnessed two
truckloads of Philippine Army soldiers hurriedly crossing the
Licao-Licao-Balagbag checkpoint, apparently responding to reports
that New People’s Army guerrillas had been sighted on the other
side of the hill. As in other ancestral domains in conflict-prone
territories, the incident reflected the unstable situation in the
area.]
Santos assured me, however, that the Dumagats
passing the checkpoint are given “consideration” and are not
harassed as charged by the current chieftain.
The Bulakan Star, a community paper, alleged
that its reporter was fired upon by an unknown gunman while
interviewing Santos about the checkpoints.
“Lumabas sa dyaryo na binaril pa raw sila.
Kami lang ang pini-pinpoint nila dyan, eh kaya naman ako’y yamut
na yamut [It came out in that tabloid that he was fired upon. It
said we were the ones who did it; that is why I am so
exasperated],” Santos said.
“Mabuti na lang, kami eh hindi walang-hiyang
tao. Kung walang-hiyang tao kami, eh patay na ’to. Pero mabait
kaming tao kaya buhay pa siya [It is fortunate that we are not bad
people. If we were, the [reporter] would have been dead. But we are
good people and that is why the [reporter] is still alive],” he
added.
The Dumagats have no choice but to wait for the
local government to act on their plea for peace and security.
“It wouldn’t be easy if it were left to us
to remove the structures there. We won’t be able to handle it,”
Yambao said.
Moreover, “the official talks have not
started. Both mayors should help. Whoever has jurisdiction over the
areas concerned should help. If it were left to us, we would not be
able to handle it.”
Ramos, the current chieftain, said, “Sa totoo
lang po baka ho kami maubos kung kami lang po ang a-atake dyan
para sila’y paalisin. Wala pong mangyayari sa amin. Talagang ang
masa po dyan ay talagang puro high power [In truth, we [Dumagats]
might decrease in number if we are the only ones to attack and make
them [illegal settlers] leave. We are helpless. The majority are
people in power].”
In exasperation, Yambao said, “Sa parte naman
ng mga Dumagat, kami’y naiipit na rin. Hindi mo na alam minsan
kung sino ang kakausapin [On our part, we Dumagats are caught in the
middle. Sometimes you don’t know who to talk to anymore].” 
(To be continued)
Part 2 |
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