CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, PHILIPPINES —  A firm occupying a part of an ancestral domain in Quezon, Bukidnon has been ordered by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to cease operations in the disputed area.

NCIP Chair Allen Capuyan uploaded a copy of a cease and desist order (CDO) issued and served to Kiantig Development Corp. (KDC), the firm occupying a part of the Manobo-ancestral Pulangiyon’s land, on his Facebook page on Saturday.

Members of the tribe had previously petitioned the NCIP for a CDO after five of them were injured when gunmen, claimed to be security workers of the firm occupying the land, opened fire on them on April 19, when the tribe and De Guzman entered the region.

The NCIP-10 team, which included Rey Dingal, Director of the Office on Empowerment and Human Rights, as well as representatives from the DENR, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, the Commission on Human Rights, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the police, the Philippine Army, and the media, served the CDO.

“This resolves the petition filed by the Manobo-Pulangiyon indigenous peoples, praying for an order enjoining the operators and owners of the KDC, all persons claiming rights under it, and all illegal occupants of the Manobo-Pulangiyon ancestral domain located in the municipality of Quezon, province of Bukidnon,” the order stated. 

The CDO, according to Leonardo Montemayor, chair of the Federation of Free Farmers and former agricultural secretary, will be essential in the return of the displaced tribe to their ancestral home.

“Hopefully, this development will pave the way for the early repossession by the Manobo-Pulangiyons of their land,” Montemayor said.

After being forced away by KDC, over a thousand Manobo-Pulangihon families have been living in improvised shelters next to the national highway in Quezon, just a few meters away from their ancestral property, since 2017.  – WhatALife!

Source: (inquirer.net)

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