corniche.net

By Mike Alon
October 29, 2009 - In an historic land case lodged by a group of about 90 Moros against the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) in Kabacan, (north) Cotabato over a 400 hectares of the 1,024 hectares land area of the said government university, the Court of Appeals, 22nd Division, decided the case in favor of the USM on September 18, 2009 .

Allegedly, the land was owned by the claimants' ancestors but on June 28, 1927 , under the American regime, it was titled by a settler's company known as Rio Grande Rubber Estate Company without the knowledge of the Moro owners who were "no read and no write" at that time. In 1953, it was converted to reservation for school site and thus titled under the name of the Mindanao Institute of Technology (MIT), now University of Southern Mindanao (USM).

In 1990, the heirs of the Moro owners led by Lintato Sandigan with some 89 others filed a case with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to recover the land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of the government. The Regional Director of the DAR issued an Order favoring the Moro claimants. However, the case was appealed to the Court of Appeals (CA) by the then USM President, Dr. Virgilio G. Oliva and the CA reversed the decision of the DAR director.

The said decision shows that the Indigenous Peoples Republic/Rigths Act (IPRA Law) is of no avail in cases of ancestral lands. It shows also that majority of the Philippine laws are suppressive on the rights of the Bangsamoro people and favorable only to the government.

A neutral party, who speak on condition of anonymity, commented that if the Moros may no longer recover their lands due to government laws on ancestral domain, but if justice is to be served, they (moros) must be paid with a just compensation for their ancestors' landholdings or they may be given appropriate relocation.