Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya—The National Commission on Indigenous People is in the process of its “lengthy cleansing” of overlapping titles to hasten the issuance of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Titles.
Greg Singangan, NCIP provincial director, said their agency is reconciling the overlapping of government-issued titles within the ancestral domain areas of indigenous people in the province.
These titles, he said are the Certificate of Land Ownership Award of the Department of Agrarian Reform and those tenurial instruments issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The overlapping of land ownership and stewardship instruments are concentrated in the towns of Aritao, Kayapa, Ambaguio, Sta. Fe, Dupax del Sur, Alfonso Castaneda, Solano, part of Dupax del Norte, Kasibu and Villaverde. Ben Moses Ebreo
“We are waiting for the certification from DAR and DENR stating therein non-overlapping of ownership and tenurial instruments given to their beneficiaries within the ancestral zones, or areas,” Singangan said.
He said this is the major factor why CADTs are not yet given in most ancestral domain areas of the province.
“We cannot yet determine the volume of areas to be subjected or covered with CADTs, certification is still going on but there are issuances already,” Singangan said.
He said the cleansing scheme has been required by a Joint Administrative Order requiring the segregation of DENR and DAR covered areas from being included for CADT issuances.
