MANILA, Philippines – Contentions over seemingly harmless words like “collaboration” in a draft new agreement are threatening to derail yet again the awarding of titles over indigenous peoples (IP) lands in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and further delays are feared to trigger a new surge of violence in the restless region.

As many as 85 non-Moro IP leaders have been killed in BARMM in the last 10 years, and the successive killings that happened December last year has already prompted a deployment of army troops to “stabilize” the area. With land conflict as the identified root of recent killings, there’s an urgency to resolve a decade-old process of awarding IP lands in BARMM, particularly in Maguindanao the seat of power of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA).

Yet, a new memorandum of agreement (MOA) being drafted ideally to move this process along has rekindled clashes of jurisdiction between the national government and the autonomous government.

Officials fear that violence may arise anew if these jurisdictional issues are not resolved, especially because there are now planned developments on MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front – or the group that negotiated the peace deal for an autonomous Bangsamoro) camps that overlap with IP lands.

“Habang ini-improve lahat ‘yung mga kalsada doon sa mga lugar na ‘yan until na hindi ma-resolve ‘yung issue ng ancestral domain, lalong lalala ‘yan (while improvements are being done on the roads there, if the issue of ancestral domain is not resolved, the situation will get worse),” Kalinga Representative Allen Jesse Mangoang said on Monday, February 3, as the House Committee on Indigenous Cultural Communities and Indigenous Peoples continued its investigation on non-Moro IP killings.

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Jurisdictional clash

The main contention is jurisdiction – before the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) was passed, it was the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) under the national government that delineated the lands. The Teduray-Lambangian groups, for excample, are claiming 208,158 hectares of ancestral land in Maguindanao and portions of Sultan Kudarat – and around 60,000 hectares of this are inside MILF camps in Camps Omar and Bader in Maguindanao.

But ever since BOL, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) claims it’s their Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs (MIPA) that has jurisdiction. The BTA halted the process in 2019 via a cease and desist order because of this in 2019. The national Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said in a report published on Monday that the cease and desist order “lacks legal basis.” But even the CHR’s jurisdiction is questioned because the BARMM has its own human rights commission or the BHRC.

Peace Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr presented on Monday a new MOA that’s due to be signed by both NCIP and MIPA, but he said there are three “contentious” clauses that need to be resolved. The three clauses all say that there should be collaboration between NCIP and MIPA in the delineation, and that IPs should have full participation and involvement.

MIPA legal officer Mona Diragen said those clauses are “inconsistent” with the newly-passed Bangsamoro IP code which says “pending ancestral domain applications that are currently being processed by the NCIP such as the Teduray Lambangian Ancestral Domain Claim, shall be turned over to the MIPA for immediate action.”

Lawmakers questioned Diragen why wanting for a collaboration in the MOA would be contentious in the first place. Basilan Representative Mujiv Hataman said: “Bakit magiging contentious? Maliban lang meron tayong tinatago. Kung wala namang tayong tinatago, very clear eh, collaboration and partnership lang naman ang keywords doon.” (Why would it be contentious? Except maybe if you’re hiding something. But if you’re not hiding something, it’s very clear that collaboration and partnerships are the only keyword.)

Further into the House hearing, Diragen softened her stance and said that the issue is just because those clauses were added at the last minute and the Minister on Indigenous Peoples Affairs has not had a chance to review it.

Galvez said it would have to be reviewed eventually by the Intergovernmental Relations Body (IGRB) which is the main body where the national government and the new Bangsamoro government meet and resolve issues. Lawmakers pointed out that escalating to the IGRB would just cause delays when the issue was as simple as collaboration.

There was a recommendation, precisely as the draft MOA provides, to come up with a system for NCIP and MIPA to both process the long-awaited CADTs or Certificate of Ancestral Domain. The lack of CADT has rendered IP groups helpless to armed groups who come to claim a disputed land, which in some cases have resulted in murders.

“Dapat walang conflict pagdating sa issue, maliban lang may ego tayo na dapat ako, dapat kami, ‘yun lang ang issue. Pero kung ang concept natin is yung outcome niya na mapakinabangan ng IP, dapat wala tayong pagtatalunan dito,” said Hataman. (There should be no conflict in this issue, except if there’s an ego here – it should be me, then that’s the issue. But if the concept is to reach an outcome beneficial to the IPs, there’s nothing we should be arguing about.)

Urgency in MILF camps

Leticio Datuwata, the Timuay labi or supreme tribal chieftain, said in the hearing that their most urgent concern are the planned developments in the MILF camps in Camps Bader and Omar, which were just supposed to be temporary camps of former combatants, according to Datuwata.

“Ang hiling namin ay tanggalin ang mga kampong nag-overlap sa aming ancestral domain na nagdudulot ito ng kaguluhan sa aming lugar dahil sa tingin ng iba ay teritoryo nila,” said Datuwata. (Our request is to remove the camps that overlap with our ancestral domain because it creates chaos in our area because others think that is their territory.)

The CHR report says this “disturbing issue…may further displace and dispossess the Indigenous Peoples of their lands and cause further bloodshed.”

“The influx of migrants going into the domain continues at a breakneck speed,” said the CHR report. Even the CHR runs into jurisdictional issues with the BHRC. CHR Commissioner Faydah Dumarpa said they insist that their authority to conduct parallel investigations on human rights violations should be recognized at the very least.

Deanne Capiral, advocacy manager of independent monitoring group Climate Conflict Action Asia, said during the hearing that IP groups even in “outer core” areas like Barangay Biarong in Upi, Maguindanao, have been displaced due to the killing of non-Moro IP leaders.

Capiral pointed out that these overlapping areas are rich in resources like agriculture, and are potential mining sites.

The Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG), the indigenous political structure of the Teduray-Lambangian IP groups, also called for assistance in the cases filed over the killings of their leaders, saying that applications for Witness Protection Program (WPP) have been rejected. Lack of legal and financial support has made pursuing justice difficult, said Jennevie Cornelio of TJG.

Cornelio said they can’t even get copies of reports on the cases they filed, with authorities citing data privacy. “Kahit may warrant of arrest, hindi ito nasi-serve dahil mas marami ang armas ng suspek kesa sa otoridad (Even if there’s a warrant of arrest, it’s not served because the suspect has more guns than authorities),” said Cornelio.

The Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Bangsamoro IP code, whose wording is also contended by the IP groups, are being drafted, which makes issues such as this urgent. The House committee said it will resume its hearing after the elections. – Rappler.com