141 had already limited women’s opportunity to apply for a homestead patent. Paragraph 8 of Land Administrative Order No. 7-1 dated April 30, 1936, entitled “Rules and Regulations Governing the Filing and Disposition of Application for Alienable lands of the Public domain or for Real Properties of Commonwealth of the Philippines” allowed women to apply for homestead patent only if her husband is incapacitated by death, disease, or mental illness, or is imprisoned. This government policy was repealed only in 2002 by DENR Administrative Order 2002-13 entitled “Removal of Gender Bias in the Acceptance and Processing of Homestead Patent Applications and Other Public Land Application”. With the length of time that these laws were operative and effective, it is important to assess their effects on the degree of access and control of women over land resources.
that are orally passed on from one generation to another are gradually getting lost. One such oral history is that of the Tedurays and the Moro who once believed that they come from the same lineage. The possibilities of interfacing these rituals, practices and legends with various conflict resolution mechanisms will greatly enrich peace building efforts in Mindanao and elsewhere. 6.3 Causal relations between land conflicts and insurgency, including links between local conflicts and national policy. This study had indirectly shown that such causal relationships exist, but there is a dearth of data and information to prove such relationships. Local and national efforts to promote peace and find a lasting solution to land conflicts will benefit from such enrichment of data and information. 6.4 Related to the above but of different dimension perhaps is a study that could surface a widely perceived but as of yet unproven collusion between national and regional governments and elites/ big landowners from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to occupy large tracts of lands in Mindanao. There is much mystery in how modern-day elites, both Christian and Moro, managed to acquire vast tracts of land despite limitations on hectarage allowed for each individual land owner, even under such colonial land policies. The cases presented in this study variously touched on bureaucrats and personnel of land titling bodies that have colluded with parties, elite or not, to obtain titles to parcels of land. Future studies that expose these points of rent-seeking activities in land disposition will be of high interest to various stakeholders.
6.2 A thorough study of customary laws, especially as they pertain to land (such as the tarsilah) and the resolution of disputes, including rituals of harmony and healing. While there are numerous anthropological and ethnographic studies conducted in the Philippines, no comprehensive and exhaustive study of customary laws have been conducted as of yet. The modes of land acquisition of Maranaos are different from Maguindanaoans, and perhaps from the other tribes as well. Rituals of harmony and healing abound and are undoubtedly vary from one tribe to another, yet these are not sufficiently harnessed to inform and enhance conflict resolution strategies. Various legends and historical accounts
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