Awarding of C.A.D.T

After many years of hard work for the recognition of their Native Title, the Ayta Mag-indi and Ayta Mag-antsi Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples of Porac, Pampanga will now taste the fruit of their labor as they are set to finally receive their registered Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) this month!

The 18,660-hectare ancestral domain in the Municipality of Porac, Pampanga, also known as CADT 123, is inhabited by more than 12,000 Ayta Mag-indi and Ayta Mag-antsi IPs situated in Barangays Camias, Diaz, Inararo, Villa Maria and Sapang Uwak. On July 23, 2009, the NCIP Commission en banc approved their direct CADT application and since then, the ICCs/IPs were waiting for the CADT to be registered before the Registry of Deeds (ROD). On February 1, 2022, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) led by Chairperson Allen A. Capuyan conducted an inter-agency AD visitation with the Ayta Mag-antsi and Ayta Mag-indi ICCs/IPs of Porac to discuss ways forward of burning issues and development needs under the 11 Building Blocks including the absence of their CADT.

Under the Republic Act 8371, also known as Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), ancestral domains refer to all areas generally belonging to ICCs/IPs comprising lands, inland waters, coastal areas, and natural resources held under a claim of ownership, occupied or possessed by ICCs/IPs, by themselves or through their ancestors, communally or individually since time immemorial, continuously to the present even when interrupted by war, force majeure or displacement by force, deceit, stealth or as a consequence of government projects or any other voluntary dealings entered into by government and private individuals or corporations, and which are necessary to ensure their economic, social and cultural welfare.

Ancestral domains shall include forests, pastures, residential, agricultural and other lands individually owned whether alienable and disposable otherwise, hunting grounds, burial rounds, worship areas, bodies of water, mineral and other natural resources and lands which may no longer be exclusively occupied by ICCs/IPs but from which they traditionally had access to for their subsistence and traditional activities, particularly the home ranges of ICCs and IPs who are still nomadic and or shifting cultivators.

The issuance of a CADT to the ICCs/IPs shall give them the responsibility to have and to hold in ownership the ancestral domain described in the CADT as their private but community property which belongs to all generations of the concerned ICCs/IPs. They shall develop, control, manage and utilize collectively the ancestral domain with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities subject to the condition that the said ancestral domain or portions thereof shall not be sold, disposed or destroyed.

The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples Region 3, NCIP Pampanga Community Service Center, in cooperation with the Provincial Government of Pampanga, Local Government Unit of Bayung Porac, Office of the Municipal IPMR of Porac, MILKAPA (IPS), and MAGKAALBAPA (IPO), invite all stakeholders and development partners to witness this historic milestone on the 31st of May, 2022 at Barangay Villa Maria Covered Court, Porac, Pampanga!

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