Because of these, they were forced to abandon their ancestral lots in 1971. “During our absence, the claimants occupied the abandoned lots under the guise and pretense of being the lawful owners of the land based upon their patents which they obtained through a purportedly approved homestead plans as early as 1919 to 1950s or thereabouts. The native inhabitants who are considered as first people of Langban, Midsayap, Cotabato felt too disgruntled as [to] the effect of titling their ancestral lands,” the Lansons said through their narrative account. “The concerned Bangsamoro people (native inhabitants) of Balangay Langban, Midsayap, Cotabato naturally resented the illegal intrusions of claimants which was probably misinterpreted by the government as an act of cessation from the Republic of the Philippines.”
On February 2, 1989, an evacuation of both Bangsamoro farmers and Christians from their farm holdings in Balangay Langban occurred on account of “gross bad faith” of one Rodrigo Sorongon and his cohorts in refusing to honor their written agreement with Kamlon Montawal. Montawal, a relative of the Lansons, mortgaged the land to Sorongon who refused to return the three hectares farmholding of the latter despite the lapse of one cropping season on December 1988, a supposed violation of the agreement. Conflict started when Sorongon hired soldiers who managed to have the 35th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army conduct operations over the disputed areas on the pretext that they were pursuing Bangsamoro rebels. But the Lansons insist that the operations were in reality intended to “eject the weak and defenseless Bangsamoro people out of their respective ancestral lands.” They said that during the operations, their houses, including the house of Mamasalalan Panansang on Lot No. 317, were burned to ashes. They accused Sorongon to be behind this “lawlessness and brutality.”
In 1978, the Lansons were able to return to the area but they were not able to recover a good portion of their land as these were already occupied by Christian settlers. Some of the areas, however, were recovered. On February 28, 1981, a protest was filed by Sumangkang Lanson against the homestead application of Davil Escarola. On May 19, 1986, Mamasalalan Panansang filed his intervention to the case alleging that his late father Tipas Panansang had been in open, continuous, exclusive, notorious possession and occupation of the said lot since 1946 in a concept of a bonafide claim of ownership interrupted only during the Ilaga-Muslim conflict in the 1970s. It was Sumangkang Lanson who filed the protest in 1986 because at that time, Mamasalalan Panansang and his family evacuated to another area. There was also an agreement between their fathers, Engken Lanson and Tipas Panansang, that the Lansons return Lot 317 to the Panansangs.
Land Tenure Stories in Central Mindanao
Land Tenure Book 1001.indd 100
“Besmirching of our mosque and Madrasah, butchering of dogs inside our Mosque, destruction of our Mosque, and finally, taking the roofs (galvanized iron) of our mosque were tremendous violations against the rights of the Bangsamoro peoples (native inhabitants) of Balangay Langban, Midsayap Cotabato. The burned houses, deprived chances of cultivating of our ancestral lands for a very long period of time in an invulnerable misery on the part of the Bangsamoro people (native inhabitants) of Balangay Langban, 100
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