Land Issue Coursework: Mac-liing Dilag and the Chico River (Coursework Sample)

Land Issue: Mac-liing Dilag and the Chico River
* Introduction
When we discuss resources particularly to land, it is inevitable that we will be tackling issues regarding to it and often coincides with the problem of water shortages, land ownership, land management and land use. Merriam-Webster dictionary (2016) defines land as "a portion of the earth's solid surface distinguishable by boundaries or ownership: as a rural area characterized by farming or ranching; also: farming or ranching as a way of life" or in short an area in the earth that is owned by someone.
Land ownership is a highly debatable topic when we talk about land particularly when it comes to the exploitation of the ancestral lands. In the Philippine context there are laws that govern the ownership, management, and usage of ancestral lands and ancestral domains due to the "unsustainable resource management under the centralist state control" (Prill-Brett 2015, pg. 171). In which there has been a large influence in the recognition of the state in the ancestral lands and domains that resulted in the implementation of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) or also known as the Republic Act No. 8371 of 1997 (Prill-Brett, 2015).
It is included in the IPRA the issuance of Certificates of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADCs) so that the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) could have a collected right to delineate their geographic space (Prill-Brett, 2015). The purpose of the issuance of the CADCs is the belief that when IPs are given their rights in the land tenure they will be more committed and concerned in protecting and conserving the environment (Gibbs et al. 1993; Poffenberger and McGean, 1993 cited in the Tradition and Transformation: Studies on Cordillera Indigenous Culture, 2015). But Prill-Brett (2015) argued that the awarding of ancestral domain does not automatically lead to sustainable environmental management or to social justice. Likewise, "land security through communal tenure or collective control may not guarantee sustainable resource use" (Prill-Brett 2015, pg. 171).
Problems and issues that arise in the awarding of CADCs, one cause of problem when you award CADC on an entire administrative area (municipality or a province) is that the people handling the title are not fit in managing an ancestral domain particularly with resource management practices and there is an unequal access and control of resources in a certain community (Prill-Brett, 2015).
Also there is a tendency for the government to think that Philippine IPs are homogenous; that a certain group of IPs live only in one area, thus the awarding of CADCs are just awarded in some IPs while other IPs that are within the ancestral domain but live in a different area are not able to receive the title (Prill-Brett, 2015).
Magana (2003, cited in the Tradition and Transformation: Studies on Cordillera Indigenous Culture, 2015) gave examples of communities that experience this problem such as the Agta of the Cagayan, and other IPs of Palawan and Visayas that have been coastal dwellers but failed to receive their title to coastal area settlements. Also other IPs failed to get their ancestral domain because other migrants from other Philippine ethnic groups have permanently occupied their land (Prill-Brett, 2015).
In the Cordillera region the story of Macli-ing Dulag best illustrates the example of land exploitation. Macli-ing Dulag, a "pangat (village elder) from the community of Bugnay in Tinglayan, Kalinga" led the Kalinga-Bontok Resistance in response to the construction of the Chico hydroelectric power dam Macli- ing Dulag, a "pangat (village elder) from the community of Bugnay in Tinglayan, Kalinga" (Salvador – Amores, 2015). In later publications, he is known to be as the "Kalinga Chief: Defender of the Cordillera" (Doyo, 2015) for his courage and intense dedication to stand up and to fight the Marcos government this is because during the Marcos regime, the World Bank planned to fund the construction of a dam in the Chico River, which is one of the development projects (Chico River Basin Development) in the community during this time (Cordillera Peoples Alliance, n.d.). The villagers of Kalinga and Bontok rely so much on the "Chico river for the irrigation of their rice fields and for domestic consumption" (Cordillera Peoples Alliance n.d., pg. 2) in which if the four mega dams will be constructed villages and hectares of rice fields will be submerged in water. The discussion about the construction of the Chico Dam will be discussed further later in the paper.
II. Sustainable Development and Issues
It is a fact that water is a basic fundamental need not only of humans but basically in promoting the survival of any living organism. Thus, there is a great demand for water to be distributed and to be provided efficiently among us. As a result, one of many ways to regulate water management is through the construction of dams or reservoirs in various regions. These dams function essentially for "irrigation, hydropower, water supply for domestic and industrial use, inland navigation, and flood control" (International Commission on Large Dams, n.d.).
Engineering and Development Corporation of the Philippines (EDCOP) presented a pre-feasibility study showing the possible benefits of the construction of the Chico Dam River to the people of Luzon especially in Kalinga and Apayao; benefits such as accession of water for irrigation of 49,000 hectares of agricultural land to the lower Kalinga-Apayao area and supply of electricity to be used by the people in Luzon for the power generated for the Luzon grid would be 1,010 MV that could serve a large area (Goa,1998).
Although dams do so much for the well-being and development of the people, community; and entire nation, in some instances, there are still inevitable problems that arise in relation to its construction proposal in selected areas. World Commission on Dams, whose task is to review water dams in terms of effectiveness and establish guidelines for the design, construction and operation of water dams, identified several issues otherwise negative impacts brought about by the establishment of water dams on ancestral lands (Cultural Survival, n.d). Such impacts greatly affect not only the owners of land and the land itself but their identity and the persistence of their culture as well.
The primary issue would be the loss of land, which comprises of "agricultural land, forest, grazing land, fishing grounds and other resources from which indigenous communities derived their subsistence" (Cultural Survival, n.d). Consequently, it affects the right to entitlement of indigenous peoples in relation to their customary laws which state that resources such as land are common property thus when land is taken from them for the construction of water dams, they lose their right over their land (Cultural Survival, n.d).
Secondly, it perpetrates conflict among ethnic communities. This roots from when they get displaced to another place as a consequence of losing their land for the construction of water dams. Land loss has cost them their source of subsistence hence competition for resources—conflict.
We may not be aware of it but another issue emerging from the establishment of water dams on ancestral lands is gender inequity. According to the thematic reviews of World Commission on Dams, women are the more affected party due to land loss. This is due to the fact that women are more dependent on the resources in their communities. In addition, women are deprived of compensation for their lands (which they have cultivated) because it is not named after them thus it is their husbands or the men who are paid.
Lastly, indigenous peoples experience abuse of their human rights when they refuse to hand over their land to companies that construct water dams. There are accounts of houses burnt down, illegal imprisonment and even rape.
In relation to the establishment of the Chico Dam, it compromised the people’s ownership of land, this is because achieving such kind of development would mean the government asking for the indigenous people of Kalinga and Apayao to surrender the land ownership of their ancestral domain to the government for it is the proposed location of the hydroelectric dam. The dam project construction resulted to the Kalinga- Bontok Resistance. (Salvador – Amores, 2015). The main reason why the residents of said communities were up against the Chico river dam project was because it will certainly submerge several villages and their rice fields (Cordillera People’s Alliance – Public Information Commission, 2001). Ironically, one purpose of having a dam is to prevent flooding as it controls the water distribution. Thus, "more than 100,00 Kalingas and Bontocs were to be adversely affected by this project (Cordillera People’s Alliance – Public Information Commission, 2001). Furthermore, the dam construction will likely bring about problems regarding land preservation or preservation, cultural identity, and community destruction. Also, loss of forest resources like game, firewoods, and food products occured along with the dam construction (Goa, 1998).
"The Bontok and Kalinga who are culturally linked to the land equate the land with life" (Goa,1998). For the most part, the construction of the dam would affect the established way of living, their culture, of the indigenous people of Bontok and Kalinga. All the institutions that were established from their ancestors to the present generation were maintained and preserved by the people in their ancestral land, traces of their culture and practices were showcased in that land. Furthermore, they believe that the land is their way to communicate to their ancestors. Through the rituals they perform, communication to their ancestral spirits and spirits of nature was their gui...