Reconstitution of Ancestral Land, Trust in The Institution | Igorotage
Ten years and thirty days ago today, a Letter of Opposition had been filed at the Land Management Bureau Benguet Province, against a survey conducted to disect the Landholding of Carmen Sabaoan Molintas; the exact same protest put down at DENR and DAR by two eldest of her grandchildren.
While it is true“the inability for a Government to act on perceived and acknowledged problems frequently exacerbates suffering,” I had been brought up to trust in the institution. I believe one can find many of those who still construe public service and exemplify leadership governance with sense of moral upright, especially in the higher echelon.
The family ancestral land had been mutilated on three counts. A first had been during the 1993 General Cadastral Survey when a charwoman took out her two rice paddies, to replace it with wasteland, while another spliced from the back border. Some years afterward, a chauffeur paid way for the insertion of an eastside lot, put it in the name of his father. Yet the 2012 survey was worse because all of it was torn apart by another so-thought highfalutin trustee.
By 2017, it was devastating to find informal settlers had cut down my grandfather’s orchard to fit out structures. Even the space contoured for ritual, all with chicken coops and pits; yet still ongoing. The pasturelands seen from the ancestral house turned into swamplands after a tilapia farm had been put without structural reinforcement; then abandoned after a storm ruined it. Out stupidity it is told the land is sinking! Far frenzy, my grandmother’s tomb was dug out from where we put her down to rest and her remains thrown to the edge of the cliff; to be replaced by bodies of others not an heir.
Above all, the distortion of Tradition, at its core, is the saddest. How warped people think that language per ‘se or the lack of it can determine ancestry. Or else the assertion that place of birth overrules descendancy. Yet I find many practice ritual, rather frequently and with ease, as ‘partying for drunkedness’—–when the authentic underlying principles of Ancestral Land and Ancestral Authority is thwarted to accommodate the wrongful KAWATAN. There are three rudimentary principles to Nabaloi Inheritance which is the law for ancestral lands: Nabaloi Law and Ritual 1928.
Suita chaga kokoa niinta too ja angobda ni pilmero /Section 46 (The land is the property of the person who works it first.)
Suita too kakoato suta chaga i chaga nan amato ono apoto /Section 47 (The man owns the land which was the land of his father or ancestor)
Siuta bagaan agmabodin makeda ni kokoa /Section 56 (Servants do not get any property)
If you claim to be an Ybaloi born in Kapangan, then how is it you do not know that space does not belong to you.
My father treasured these lands. It is time you take down those pitiful concrete structures that insult pristine scenery.
Kileman Sabaoan has his own property. Oradja Sabaoan by spouse Tediong Clemente has several lots, one borders the eastside
Presidential Commission of Agrarian Reform for the final projection and reconstitution of the Landholding Memorandum 1
Memorandum 2
DAR BLTI Certification the Landholding is not covered by CARP. This certificate voids the 1993 General Cadastral Survey and other succeeding surveys executed on the property; responding CARP.
DAR PARPO BENGUET II Certificate NO Approval of surveys done to overlap the Landholding; or permission to enter
NBI CAR Certification to nullify monetary claim
DOJ LRA Endorsement for certified true copy of OCT
PASSO Memorandum for the Settlement of Estate
DENR CAR SMD Certification Plan of Free Patent CARMEN S. MOLINTAS, Sheet 1 approved in 1941
DENR CAR LMS Certification Plan of Free Patent CARMEN S. MOLINTAS, Sheet 2 approved in 1941
DENR CAR RED Memorandum 2022-3082 for OCT certified true copy
My debt of gratitude to Lolo Tatang’s old guards Andres Cosalan & Bantas Suanding, children and families; CARP & IPRA ADVOCATOR Secretary Ernesto Garilao & The Berkeley-Aquino Law Office; Presidential Intelligence Advisory General Anthony Alcantara & PNP General Oliver Enmodias; ICOM Philippines Trustee Gina Barte Araneta
My utmost admiration of the forthright of Aunt Evelyn Cosalan, Aunt Monique Wankey and Aunt Ibang Carame;
My profuse gratitude for the courage of the following Honourables, Institutional Leaders whose quality of righteousness set the record straight:
Kapangan Mayor Manny Fermin & Municipal Engineer George Junior Camhit
DTI Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau Chief Joseph Pamittan and MO Elizabeth Carsula Energy Regulatory Commission Chairperson Floresenda Digal
BENECOGM Engr. Melchor Licuben & Engr. Ramel Rifani
NBIInvestigator Atty. Stanley Dalayon NBI Attorney Directors Adrian Feudo, Don Hernandez, Virgilio Mendez and Cesar Bacani
DoF Director Nino Raymond Alvina & PASSO Cris Badival PB Director Roberto Canuto, Municipal Assessor Melanio Buya & staff
PARC Secretariat Director Isabelita Estrada, OIC Attorney Marjorie Ayson & DAR PARPO Director Virginia Aycud
For DENR, many many thanks for exerting the highest standards of engineering precision and professional ethics; Records and Knowledge Management Division Eng Victor Balde & Ms Juliet Uganza; CAR Regional Director, OIC Attorney Maximo Soriano and Engr Christopher Degay; Regional LMS Engr Joseph Paoad and Ms Analyn Ticong