BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Claimants of Ibaloy ancestral lands here will file charges against the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for allegedly canceling their land titles.
The NCIP canceled Ancestral Land Titles 000302, 000303 and 000304 under Resolution 06-086-2014 dated Oct. 8, citing a report of the Commission on Audit that the documents were unaccounted for and considered lost.
The land claimants, however, said the NCIP did not inform them about the resolution.
A former NCIP official, lawyer Alfonso Aroco, said the land titles were awarded to the claimants and registered with the Register of Deeds in 2010.
“These claims are among the original Ibaloy claims recognized in 1937,” he added.
Under the Indigenous People’s Rights Act, the NCIP should convert land claims into ancestral land titles.
“If it is true that these are unaccounted and missing, why let the beneficiaries suffer from a misdeed not of their own making?” Aroco said.