BANGUED, Abra (PIA) — The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)-Abra through its service centers continue to assist municipalities in securing Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) which will validly entitle the indigenous peoples (IPs) with security and ownership over their lands.
In the province, only the municipality of Peñarrubia has been an issued CADT. NCIP hopes that the municipality of San Juan will be awarded with CADT by the end of June this year.
Shezel A. Biscarra, Officer-in-Charge of a Service Center in NCIP-Abra, said that the awarding of CADT for an IP community will benefit the peoples for a lifetime.
“Based on our Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, one of its main objectives of CADT is to provide secure ownership among IPs over their ancestral domains, ” Biscarra said.
Once a CADT is awarded to a particular community, this means that there are no boundary conflicts among the sub-tribes therefore there is unity for the benefit of the generations to come, she added.
Aside from ownership and security, the NCIP believes that the CADT also purges boundary conflicts among IP communities which will lead to unity and peace for the benefit of the whole IP tribe.
Thus, the NCIP continues to assists IP communities to push through with the process of acquiring their own CADT despite the laborious process.
NCIP-Abra Community Affairs Officer Jayson Molina explained that the process of securing a CADT goes through different stages which include consultations, boundary dispute resolutions, signing of memorandum of agreement between the conflicting parties, data gathering and documentation.
There are already MOAs signed between Licuan-Baay and Lacub, Lagangilang and Dolores, as well as Danglas, Bangued and San Quintin.
Delineation and titling process in the municipality of Malibcong will be conducted this first quarter of 2023.
The NCIP calls on all IPs to freely seek the assistance and various programs of their office located near the Abra Provincial Hospital in Barangay Calaba, Bangued. (JDP/CAGT – PIA CAR, Abra)
In Photos: NCIP-Abra Service Center OICs
