d) The State shall guarantee that members of the ICCs/IPs regardless of sex, shall equally
enjoy the full measure of Human rights and freedoms without distinction or discrimination;
e) The State shall take measures, with the participation of the ICCs/ IPs concerned, to protect
their rights and guarantee respect for their cultural integrity, and to ensure that members of
the ICCs/IPs benefit on an equal footing from the rights and opportunities which national
laws and regulations grant to other members of the population; and
f) The State recognizes its obligations to respond to the strong expression of the ICCs/IPs for
cultural integrity by assuring maximum ICC/IP participation in the direction of education,
health, as well as other services of ICCs/lPs, in order to render such services more responsive
to the needs and desires of these communities.
Towards these ends, the State shall institute and establish the necessary mechanisms to
enforce and guarantee the realization of these rights, taking into consideration their customs,
traditions, values, beliefs interests and institutions, and to adopt and implement measures to
protect their rights to their ancestral domains.
CHAPTER II
DEFINITION OF TERMS
SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. - For purposes of this Act, the following terms shall mean:
a) Ancestral Domains - Subject to Section 56 hereof, refer to all areas generally belonging to
ICCs/IPs comprising lands, inland waters, coastal areas, and natural resources therein, held
under a claim of ownership, occupied or possessed by ICCs/IPs, by themselves or through
their ancestors, communally or individually since time immemorial, continuously to the
present except when interrupted by war, force majeure or displacement by force, deceit,
stealth or as a consequence of government projects or any other voluntary dealings entered
into by government and private individuals/corporations, and which are necessary to ensure
their economic, social and cultural welfare. It shall include ancestral lands, forests, pasture,
residential, agricultural, and other lands individually owned whether alienable and disposable
or otherwise, hunting grounds, burial grounds, worship areas, bodies of water, mineral and
other natural resources, and lands which may no longer be exclusively occupied by ICCs/IPs
but from which they traditionally had access to for their subsistence and traditional activities,
particularly the home ranges of ICCs/IPs who are still nomadic and/or shifting cultivators;
b) Ancestral Lands - Subject to Section 56 hereof, refers to land occupied, possessed and
utilized by individuals, families and clans who are members of the ICCs/IPs since time
immemorial, by themselves or through their predecessors-in-interest, under claims of
individual or traditional group ownership, continuously, to the present except when
interrupted by war, force majeure or displacement by force, deceit, stealth, or as a
consequence of government projects and other voluntary dealings entered into by government
and private individuals/corporations including, but not limited to, residential lots, rice
terraces or paddies, private forests, swidden farms and tree lots;
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