December 23, 1996
DAR OPINION NO. 145-96
Mr. Domingo B. Mariano
Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer
DAR-Cordillera Administrative Region
Piwong, Hingyon, Ifugao
Dear MARO Mariano:
This refers to your letter regarding "the clamor of the people for protection of their rights over their aged terraced agricultural lands". You state that long before CARP more than four hundred titles were issued under the cadastral system within the Municipalities of Banawe and Lagawe and in 1993 DAR had issued one hundred four (104) OCT-CLOA titles in the area and Certificates of Ancestral Land Claim (CALCs) by the DENR. However, said titling program became a frustration to the people when the Registry of Deeds stopped registering the titles generated for the simple reason that the subject lands were not yet classified as A & D. In effect numerous CLOAs are pending for registration. You contend that these lands no longer form part of the public domain and therefore need not be released as A & D before the issuance of the title. Hence you posed the following queries, to wit : 1) whether the terraced agricultural lands of the Ifugaos which have been agriculturally productive since time immemorial need be classified by Congress as A & D; 2) whether the occupants of the land can avail of the support services under CARL notwithstanding the fact that they are not yet EP or CLOA holders; and, 3) whether the titling is legal if one title would cover the whole area or, one title for the homelot and another for the farmlot.
Section 9 of R.A. 6657, provides that the ancestral lands of each indigenous cultural community shall include, but not limited to, lands in the actual, continuous, and open possession and occupation of the community and its members, provided that the Torrens System shall be respected. With said right already vested with the indigenous cultural community, the DAR & DENR executed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) dated December 10, 1993 to put into effect Section 9 of R.A. 6657. By this instance A.O. No. 4, Series of 1996 otherwise known as the Rules and regulation Governing the Issuance of CARP Beneficiaries Certificates to Indigenous Cultural Communities and Peoples was enacted pursuant to Section 9 which provides in its policy statement that in recognition of their right to their ancestral land, the DAR shall issue CARP Beneficiary Certificates to member/s of the indigenous cultural communities engaged in agricultural activities, in coordination with the issuance to them of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC) or Certificate of Ancestral Land Claim (CALC) by the DENR. A Task Force shall be created by the PARO to undertake the identification of indigenous farmers and agricultural lands in the area, the preparation of Parcellary Map Sketch Plan based on the CADC or CALC issued by the DENR, and extend support in the identification, delineation, and recognition of ancestral land/domain claim pursuant to the MOA between the DAR and DENR. The Task Force shall assist in the development of the Indigenous Cultural Communities who are recipients of CARP Beneficiary Certificates under CARP into Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs), the whole range of support services under CARP being made available thereto and the same being hereby qualified for foreign assistance programs given to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs). This procedure of determining the beneficiaries of ancestral land is actually a joint activity of the DAR and DENR.
We are therefore furnishing you a copy of DAR A.O. No. 4, Series of 1996, in order to guide your Office of the procedures involved therein.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) LORENZO R. REYES
OIC-Undersecretary
LAFMA