The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has reversed its April 8 ruling that put a stopper on the issuance of ancestral land titles in Baguio.
Under its latest ruling, the NCIP is now once again issuing ancestral titles to land that is not specifically within the city townsite reservation.
The original stopper on land titling was due to a Supreme Court ruling which interprets the entirety of Baguio City townsite as the city territory. However, following opposition to the stopper from the Baguio City Council and local indigenous groups, NCIP Cordillera Director Ronald Calde said that the commission will now once again allow land claims that are not part of the townsite reservation itself.
Sections of Baguio have been segregated from the townsite and preserved as civil, military, or forest reservations through proclamations.
Camp John Hay Forest Reservation, the mining reservation near Mines View Park, and the Fort Del Pilar reservation of the Philippine Military Academy are some of the city’s protected reservations that no longer form part of the original townsite.
According to Calde, the city can move to have Congress amend the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) to edit Section 78, which states: “the City of Baguio shall remain to be governed by its Charter, and all lands proclaimed as part of its townsite reservation shall remain as such until otherwise reclassified by appropriate legislation.”
