NCIP Bohol head Emmilou M. Gonzaga (right) discussing updates on the ancestral domain claim of the Eskaya communities in Bohol during the Kapihan sa PIA in Bohol. (PIA Bohol)
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA) — The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in Bohol announced that the communal title for the Eskaya ancestral domain claim will be issued this year.
The community of indigenous peoples in Taytay in Duero, Biabas in Guindulman, Cantaub in Sierra Bullones, and Lundag in Pilar recently gathered in Guindulman to receive the government recognition for their ancestral domain claims, 17 years after they filed their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC).
The Eskaya received their CADC in 1997 when then Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Sec. Victor Ramos released the official document acknowledging the government’s receipt of the claim by the indigenous communities.
“The claim on ancestral domains was based on established genealogies, folk knowledge, customs and traditions of the Eskaya, and validated by technical survey of the NCIP team of geodetic engineers as well as the DENR survey of the claimed domains,” said NCIP Bohol head Emmilou M. Gonzaga during a recent Kapihan sa PIA interview.
The government also issued other tenurial instruments that allowed people to be awarded lots, which are within the claimed domains.
This move frustrated several indigenous peoples and even the tribal councils of the Eskaya communities.
However, on March 27, 2025, NCIP national chairperson Jennifer Pia Sibug-las and NCIP-Region 6 lawyer Princess Mae Oral came to Bohol to turn over to the Eskaya officials their Certificate of Recognition of Ancestral Domain Claims (CRADC).
“This is one of the steps leading to the award of the title for the entire ancestral domain claimed,” said Gonzaga.
The courts will then submit to the Land Registration Authority (LRA) the surveyed lands claimed for the eventual issuance of the most awaited Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), which will finally officially mark the boundaries for the indigenous people’s claim of domains.
Gonzaga said the CRADT will take a few months to be issued before the LRA could issue the title for the Eskaya.
“At that, it may actually happen within this year,” she added.
The subject ancestral domain claimed measures some 3,106.3889 square hectares. (RAHC/PIA Bohol)
