Bugsuk indigenous people’s appeal: allow them to till their lands

The National Land Use Act (NLUA), of which a bill had been repeatedly filed since the 9th Congress and declared urgent by several presidents, was closest to becoming law during the 15th Congress.

In February 2013, before the three-month interruption of sessions to give way to the campaign period of midterm elections scheduled in May, then Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was one of three solons who blocked the holding of a bicameral session to pass the NLUA bill, thus reverting it to second reading. He said he still had 53 amendments to propose. Yet when asked to present his proposed changes, he said he was not ready to present that day, nor was he prepared to do so during the last session days of the 15th Congress that ended in June 2013.

Such failure to enact the law allowed continuing land conversions and the irrational use of land and water resources. The worsening effects of climate change, particularly the stronger typhoons and perennial flooding, have exacerbated the loss of lives and damage to properties through the years. One must only remember Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (2013), Typhoon “Glenda” (2014), Supertyphoon “Rolly” (2020), and most recently, Supertyphoon “Carina” and Typhoon “Enteng,” and the vast destruction wrought by these calamities on lives and properties. Other land-related issues have caused tensions and increasing injustice to poor communities these past months.

On June 29, 2024, for instance, 16 fully armed masked men came to the island of Bugsuk, Balabac in Palawan, intending to drive away the residents in favor of an ecotourism development project being pushed by a subsidiary company of San Miguel Corp. (SMC). On June 27, Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) officials reportedly went to the area to inform the residents that the latter’s land was unsuitable for crop production, apparently in support of the ecotourism project.

Interestingly, land and water issues in these areas in Palawan date back to the ’70s, thousands were displaced when the late Danding Cojuangco, one of the Marcos cronies during martial law, forcibly took possession of 10,821 hectares of land in Bugsuk, Pandanan, and other islands in Palawan. An affiliate company called Jewelmer Corp. established pearl farms and closed off two islands, making it difficult or altogether preventing the fisherfolk from carrying out their fishing activities. Many ended up moving to other barangays, including the mainland, where they could not find regular sources of income.

In 2005, certificate of ancestral domain title applications were filed by the Molbog and Palawan indigenous peoples with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples-Palawan, but they remain pending to date. In June 2014, notices of coverage (NOCs) were issued to residents of Sitio Marihangin in Bugsuk island under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Nine years later or in May 2023, the director of DAR Region IV-B ordered the recall of the NOCs following a field report that assessed the soil type in Marihangin as not suitable for crop production. This was affirmed in September 2023 by DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III, who then issued an order excluding the lands in Bugsuk from CARP. A notice from DAR in April 2024 upheld the DAR declaration, and a final order revoking the NOCs was delivered to the sitio in June.

With the help of nongovernment organizations led by Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka, the Bugsuk residents went to Manila to seek an audience with concerned agencies, and with no less than President Marcos himself. Their specific appeal is to stop the SMC plan to establish the ecotourism project, and instead reissue the NOC to the indigenous people (IP) farmers to allow them to till their lands, and the fisherfolk to continue fishing with ease.

Will the President make himself available to listen to the cries of the IPs of Bugsuk? The Bugsuk folk have endured being deprived of land, water, and human rights for the past 50 years. Can Mr. Marcos now grant their request, and redeem himself from his past shortcomings? Will he heed the call of these indigenous farmers and fishers, and considerably uphold the name of the Marcos family by addressing these injustices?

Gemma Rita R. Marin,
executive director,
John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues