personnel of the Bureau of Lands, responsible for dispossessing them of their grandfather’s land. They believe the DENR betrayed them in favor of Christian settlers when it was tasked to distribute the land after the cancellation of land award to Caram Development Corporation in 1988. They believe they are the recipients because Bagua Mama was their uncle and the party litigant in whose favor the DENR decided with regard to his and 33 others’ petition against the sales application of Caram. Even if the decision was to their favor, no land was awarded to them. They know that under “DENR Administrative Rules, non-party litigants have no room for the availment of the fruit of the decision. Nowhere in the law is it provided that you can give it to non-original owners.36
especially by the DENR Tacurong Office are insufficient if not downright stupid. They question the composition of a technical working group formed to look into their concerns, as incapable of coming up with objective and truthful findings for the simple reason that some of these were, having been personally involved in the anomalous distribution of their land, named respondents in one of their complaints. Finally, in the midst of their current efforts to recover land, they are concerned their relatives who belong to the landed and politically influential sector would intervene in their favor. They fear intervention might be violent, as these relatives are wont to. Settlers’ Perspective on their Land Rights The settlers (mostly Christians) who benefited from the decision of the DENR to distribute land identified as Lot 26 Swo 17260 claim themselves as legal owners. They base this claim on several pieces of evidence, the chief of which is the possession of the land titles given by Government. They acquired land titles after undergoing a process administered by the DENR who required them to present proof legitimate claim such as deed or receipt of sale, length of occupation and tax declaration. If they have not acquired land titles, they base their ownership on land rights claim for which they pay real taxes and their length of actual occupation which for most of them is at least 20 years.
They accuse DENR of subdividing land to actual occupants to the total disregard the petitioners whose favor it was decided. They also accuse DENR of intentionally withholding information about the decision made in 1988 which copy they had to personally secure in Manila. The Bureau of Lands maneuvered land awards to Christians even if they knew the Muslims were original claimants and were in evacuation at the time of distribution. They suspect these maneuvering led to the kidnapping of Engr. Catudan and his wife and to their subsequent fleeing to the US to avoid conflicts. They have taken DENR to task in resolving the dispute in a barrage of complaints filed before the regional and national offices. They expect Government will resolve conflict since it is bound to protect property of citizens as parens patriae.37 But they are dismayed over how the DENR had been handling their complaints. They feel that the current actions being undertaken
Because of the number of years of stay, they have taken root and their children (the first generation of whom are at least 30 years old) consider themselves “natives” having been born in the area. Furthermore, they are migrant settlers, have called the area as their home and have very little ties, if any, with their rela93
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Land Tenure Stories in Central Mindanao
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