Understanding the IPRA Law (RA 8371)

• Provided are study notes on Philippine Indigenous Communities

Republic Act No. 8371

• Commonly known as “The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997” or IPRA Law.
• Enacted on October 29, 1997.
• Deals with Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs) and Indigenous Peoples (IPs).
• Allows indigenous peoples to obtain recognition of their rights of ownership over ancestral lands and ancestral domains by virtue of native title.

Four Pillars of IPRA Law

1. Ancestral Domain: Refers to all areas generally belonging to ICCs/IPs

• Consists of lands, inland waters, coastal areas, and natural resources occupied/possessed by ICCs/IPs since time immemorial.
• This includes ancestral lands, forests, pastures, residential and agricultural lands, and lands that ICCs/IPs traditionally access for subsistence and traditional activities.
• Ancestral Land: Land subject to property right within ancestral domain occupied, possessed, and utilized by individual families and clans of ICCs/IPs since time immemorial, including residential lots, rice terraces, private forests, swidden farms, and tree lots.
• Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT): Formal recognition of ICCs/IPs rights to their ancestral domain by virtue of native title, identified and delineated in accordance with the law.
• Certificate of Ancestral Land Title (CALT): A title formally recognizing the rights of ICCs/IPs over their ancestral lands.
• Native Title: Pre-conquest rights to lands and domains as far back as memory reaches, held under a claim of private ownership by ICCs/IPs and presumed to have been held that way since before the Spanish conquest.

Concept of Ownership

• Indigenous concept sustains the view that ancestral domains and all resources therein serve as the material bases of their cultural integrity.
• Ancestral domains are considered private but community property belonging to all generations, that cannot be sold, disposed, or destroyed like sustainable traditional resource rights

Sustainable Traditional Resource Rights

• Rights of ICCs/IPs to sustainably use, manage, protect, and conserve:
• Land, air, water, and minerals
• Plants, animals, and other organisms
• Collecting, fishing, and hunting grounds
• Sacred sites
• Other areas of economic, ceremonial and aesthetic value following their indigenous knowledge, beliefs, systems and practices.

Rights of ICC/IPs to their Ancestral Domain

• Under Section 11 of IPRA law, Native Title recognizes and respects these rights.
• Formal recognition, solicited by ICCs/Ips, is embodied in a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT).

Groups Comprised by ICCs/IPs

• Groups of people or homogenous societies.
• Those who have continuously lived as organized communities on communally bounded and defined territory.
• Those who have claimed ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such territories, sharing common language, customs, traditions, and distinct cultural traits.

State Recognition of ICCs/IPs Rights

• Shall recognize and promote the rights of ICCs/IPs within the framework of the constitution.
• Protect the rights of ICCs/IPs to their ancestral domains to ensure economic, social, and cultural well-being.
• Recognize the applicability of customary laws governing property rights or relations in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domain.
• Recognize, respect, and protect the rights of ICCs/IPs to preserve and develop their culture, traditions, and institutions.
• Guarantee that members of ICCs/IPs regardless of sex equally enjoy human rights and freedom without discrimination.
• Take measures with the participation of the ICCs/IPs concerned to protect their rights, guarantee respect for their cultural integrity, and ensure equal rights and opportunities
• Recognize obligations to respond to the needs and desires of these communities

Chapter III: Rights to Ancestral Domain and Ancestral Land

• Section 7: Rights to Ancestral Domain include:
  • Right of ownership
  • Right to develop lands and natural resources
  • Right to stay in the territories
  • Right in case of displacement
  • Right to regulate entry of migrant settlers
  • Right to safe and clean air and water
  • Right to claim parts of reservations
  • Right to resolve land conflicts
• Section 8: Ancestral Land
  • ICCs/IPs can transfer land or property rights to/among members of the same ICCs/IPs, subject to customary laws and traditions.
  • Rights of redemption within 15 years in cases of transmission of land or property rights by virtue of any agreement or devise or when is transferred for an unconscionable consideration or price.
• Section 9: Responsibilities of ICCs/IPs to their Ancestral Domains
  • Maintain ecological balance
  • Restore Denuded Areas through reforestation
  • Observe and comply with the provisions and regulations of IPRA.

2. Right to Self-Governance and Empowerment

• SEC. 17: Right to Determine and Decide Priorities for Development.
• ICCs/IPs have the right to determine and decide their own priorities for development affecting their lives, beliefs, institutions, spiritual well-being, and the lands they own, occupy or use.

National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)

• Primary government agency responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies, plans and programs to recognize, protect and promote the rights of ICCs /Ips.
• Independent agency under the Office of the President, composed of seven Commissioners appointed from ICCs/IPs.

3. Social Justice and Human Rights

• SEC. 25: Basic Services. - The ICCs/IPs have the right to special measures for the immediate, effective and continuing improvement of their economic and social conditions, including in the areas of employment, vocational training and retraining, housing, sanitation, health and social security.

4. Cultural Integrity

• Section 33: Rights to Religious, Cultural Sites and Ceremonies.
• ICCs/IPs have the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs, and ceremonies.
• Section 34: Right to Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices and to Develop own Sciences and Technologies.
• ICCs/IPs are entitled to the recognition of the full ownership and control and protection of their cultural and intellectual rights.
• Section 35: Access to Biological and Genetic Resources.
• Access to biological and genetic resources and to indigenous knowledge related to the conservation, utilization and enhancement of these resources, shall be allowed within ancestral lands and domains of the ICCs/IPs only with a free and prior informed consent of such communities, obtained in accordance with customary laws of the concerned community

Functions of NCIP in Relation to Ancestral Domains and Lands

• Titling of Ancestral Domains/Lands
• Registration of CADT and CALTS
• Issuance of Certification as a Precondition
• Action on fraudulent claims
• Taking appropriate legal action for the enforcement of the rights of ICCs/IPs

Environmental Considerations

• SEC. 58.
• Ancestral domains necessary for critical watersheds, mangroves, wildlife sanctuaries, wilderness, protected areas, forest cover, or reforestation shall be maintained, managed and developed with the full participation of the ICCs/IPs.

Peopling of the Philippines

• Refers to the process by which human population settled in the archipelago and involves migration waves.
• Homo Luzonensis, found in Luzon (Callao Cave), earliest known human presence 6,000 years ago, part of migration waves from mainland China
• Austronesian Migration – 4,000 BCE to 3,000 BCE

Neolithic and Metal Age in Philippines

• 1,000 BCE to 500 BCE
• Trade and Cultural Exchange from 500 CE to 1,500 CE introduced barter system
• Arrival of the Spanish – March 16, 1521
• Post Spanish & Western Migration (20th century) increase in rural and urban migration

Internal Development within the Austronesian Region

• Developed by William Meacham, started in Formosa (now Taiwan).

The Multiple Homeland Hypothesis

• Developed by Henry Otley Bayer (considered as the “Father of Philippine Anthropology”).

Wave Migration Theory

• Four waves of movement:
  • First wave: Indonesia to Philippines
  • Second wave: from Indonesia and dispersed
  • Third wave: from Indochina
  • Fourth wave: from mainland China
• According to Dr. Bayer, the ancestors of the Filipinos came in different “wave of migration”.
• Dawn Man - a cave-man type similar to Java Man, Peking man, and other Asian homo sapiens of 250,000 years ago
• Negritos (first settlers), arrived between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago via land bridges
• Indonesian group arrived 5,000 to 6,000 years ago
• Malays (permanent settlers) who brought the Iron age culture were the real colonizers and dominant cultural group in the pre- Hispanic Philippines

F. Landa Jocano Core Population Theory

• Developed by F. Landa Jocano
• Men migrated to the Philippines, but also to New Guinea, Borneo, and Australia
• There is evidence the Philippines was inhabited as early as 21,000 or 22,000 years ago.
• Discovery of a skull cap and a portion of a jaw in a Tabon Cave in Palawan, shows that man came earlier to the Philippines than to the Malay Peninsula
• Current Filipinos are products of evolution and movement of people

Austronesian Migration Theory

• Proposed by Peter Bellwood
• The Austronesians expanded from Asia into the Pacific by means of Taiwan 6,000 years ago.

The Melanesian Homeland Hypothesis

• Proposed by Isidore Dyen.

The Unique South China Sea Homeland Hypothesis

• Proposed by Wilhelm G. Solheim II

Other Theories

• From South China then proceeded to the Malay Peninsula moving toward Borneo and then finally through Palawan
• Started from Southeastern China, to Indochina, Malay Peninsula, then to Borneo, finally entering the Philippines through different routes
• Started in China, proceeding to Formosa, then to the Batanes Islands and then scattered until reaching as far as Borneo

Reasons for Defining Indigenous People

• Self-identification.
• Easier for them to be accepted.
• Opportunity to be heard or seen.

Explore key aspects of Republic Act No. 8371. This includes ancestral domains, cultural heritage, and indigenous people's rights. Understand the implications of recognizing their unique lifestyles and traditional ownership concepts.