ANGELES CITY – At least 50 Aetas have filed before the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) a petition asking for the annulment and cancellation of the Joint Management Agreement (JMA) entered into by the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and the Bamban Aeta Tribal Association (BATA) in December 2007.
In a petition coursed through their legal counsel Atty. Victoriano Yabut Jr., the members of the indigenous people at the Sacobia area in Tarlac and Pampanga asked the NCIP regional office to revoke the agreement which they said was “obviously favorable to the respondent CDC and too disadvantageous or detrimental to the petitioners.”
“Sadly, the respondent CDC, acting in the concept of an owner or as if having all the legal rights and authorities over the Sacobia Area, had entered into Joint Management Contract with the Bamban Aeta Tribal Association who allegedly encompasses all members of tribal associations within Sacobia Area without direct participation from the majority of petitioners, being members also of the indigenous peoples in the area, withdrawing or modifying any stipulations entered into during the existence of the contract,” said the petition filed on September 18, 2009 and obtained by Punto on Tuesday. It is lodged as NCIP Case No. 02-09-09.
“Meanwhile, the respondent CDC was created by virtue of Proclamation Orders issued by the President of the Philippines in order to accelerate the sound and balanced conversion into alternative productive uses of the Clark military reservations and their extensions as per Republic Act No. 7227… Nowhere from the said law that the Sacobia Area was ever included thereon,” it added.
The Aetas disclosed that the size of the ancestral domain at the portions of the two provinces was 10,684.2295 hectares as shown by the master plan issued by the NCIP en banc Resolution No. 019 (series of 2005).
“Ridiculously, when the said title was finally approved by the Registry of Deeds of Tarlac with the issuance of the Original Certificate of Title No.A-01 the total land area was astonishingly reduced to a mere 10,323.3082 hectares. There was here a huge disparity of more or less 361 hectares. If we are to carefully scrutinize the latter area, it is from this place where the respondent CDC had stealthily and surreptitiously entered into leased contracts with various persons and business entities/corporations, all without the free informed consent of petitioners, being members of the Indigenous Peoples of Sacobia Area,” said the petition.
“By their malevolent and wicked actuations in virtually confiscating and occupying enormous parts on the Sacobia Area, especially the missing 361 hectares, more or less, circumventing its original condition, depriving them of their rightful shares in the supposed profits and revenues to be realized in the said agreement, the absence/presence of various provisions surely advantageous/ disadvantageous to the rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples and sealing in the validity of the said agreement to a period prohibited by the IPRA Law, all without any justifiable and legal reasons at all,” the Aetas said in the petition.
It asked “the missing 361 hectares, more or less, not included in the Original Certificate of Title No. A-01 should be converted back by annulling or voiding the said title and the issuance of a new Original Certificate of Title containing the original area which is 10,684.2295 hectares.”
“There was no provision to which particular place in the said area where the Indigenous Peoples can freely build and develop their respective place of abode and means of sustenance, aside of course from their present residence and fields for agricultural purposes,” said the petition.
The Aetas also cited the following reasons for filing the petition before the NCIP: “The net income and other considerations pertaining to the computation of revenue were not clearly stipulated since the definition of net income thereon will allow the respondent CDC to charge virtually anything as alleged maintenance costs; Aside from the entitlement of the Indigenous Peoples to a mere twenty (20%) percent share of the net income, they will have also no direct control over disbursement of their share since it is the Joint Development Committee who has control over it; The guaranteed income of P1 Million per year for the 10,684 hectares or P93.60 per hectare a year or less than 1 centavo per square meter is just too iniquitous on the part of the Indigenous Peoples; It should be the Indigenous Peoples who should protect and take care of the area as well as its facilities without any compensation at all; The affected local government units should have been joined either as principal parties or instrumental witnesses and their reaction or comment should have been also procured.”
The Aetas asked the NCIP to issue “a writ of preliminary injunction and the same be made permanent.”
They asked for P1 million as moral damages and P1 million for exemplary damages.
Punto tried but failed to get the statements of the CDC.
In a petition coursed through their legal counsel Atty. Victoriano Yabut Jr., the members of the indigenous people at the Sacobia area in Tarlac and Pampanga asked the NCIP regional office to revoke the agreement which they said was “obviously favorable to the respondent CDC and too disadvantageous or detrimental to the petitioners.”
“Sadly, the respondent CDC, acting in the concept of an owner or as if having all the legal rights and authorities over the Sacobia Area, had entered into Joint Management Contract with the Bamban Aeta Tribal Association who allegedly encompasses all members of tribal associations within Sacobia Area without direct participation from the majority of petitioners, being members also of the indigenous peoples in the area, withdrawing or modifying any stipulations entered into during the existence of the contract,” said the petition filed on September 18, 2009 and obtained by Punto on Tuesday. It is lodged as NCIP Case No. 02-09-09.
“Meanwhile, the respondent CDC was created by virtue of Proclamation Orders issued by the President of the Philippines in order to accelerate the sound and balanced conversion into alternative productive uses of the Clark military reservations and their extensions as per Republic Act No. 7227… Nowhere from the said law that the Sacobia Area was ever included thereon,” it added.
The Aetas disclosed that the size of the ancestral domain at the portions of the two provinces was 10,684.2295 hectares as shown by the master plan issued by the NCIP en banc Resolution No. 019 (series of 2005).
“Ridiculously, when the said title was finally approved by the Registry of Deeds of Tarlac with the issuance of the Original Certificate of Title No.A-01 the total land area was astonishingly reduced to a mere 10,323.3082 hectares. There was here a huge disparity of more or less 361 hectares. If we are to carefully scrutinize the latter area, it is from this place where the respondent CDC had stealthily and surreptitiously entered into leased contracts with various persons and business entities/corporations, all without the free informed consent of petitioners, being members of the Indigenous Peoples of Sacobia Area,” said the petition.
“By their malevolent and wicked actuations in virtually confiscating and occupying enormous parts on the Sacobia Area, especially the missing 361 hectares, more or less, circumventing its original condition, depriving them of their rightful shares in the supposed profits and revenues to be realized in the said agreement, the absence/presence of various provisions surely advantageous/ disadvantageous to the rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples and sealing in the validity of the said agreement to a period prohibited by the IPRA Law, all without any justifiable and legal reasons at all,” the Aetas said in the petition.
It asked “the missing 361 hectares, more or less, not included in the Original Certificate of Title No. A-01 should be converted back by annulling or voiding the said title and the issuance of a new Original Certificate of Title containing the original area which is 10,684.2295 hectares.”
“There was no provision to which particular place in the said area where the Indigenous Peoples can freely build and develop their respective place of abode and means of sustenance, aside of course from their present residence and fields for agricultural purposes,” said the petition.
The Aetas also cited the following reasons for filing the petition before the NCIP: “The net income and other considerations pertaining to the computation of revenue were not clearly stipulated since the definition of net income thereon will allow the respondent CDC to charge virtually anything as alleged maintenance costs; Aside from the entitlement of the Indigenous Peoples to a mere twenty (20%) percent share of the net income, they will have also no direct control over disbursement of their share since it is the Joint Development Committee who has control over it; The guaranteed income of P1 Million per year for the 10,684 hectares or P93.60 per hectare a year or less than 1 centavo per square meter is just too iniquitous on the part of the Indigenous Peoples; It should be the Indigenous Peoples who should protect and take care of the area as well as its facilities without any compensation at all; The affected local government units should have been joined either as principal parties or instrumental witnesses and their reaction or comment should have been also procured.”
The Aetas asked the NCIP to issue “a writ of preliminary injunction and the same be made permanent.”
They asked for P1 million as moral damages and P1 million for exemplary damages.
Punto tried but failed to get the statements of the CDC.
