04/02/2020
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and Safety Division, among others, (collectively called petitioners) before
the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Cordillera Administrative
Region (NCIP-CAR), Regional Hearing Office, La Trinidad, Benguet,
docketed as Case No. 31-CAR-06.
In their petition, private respondents basically claimed that the lands
where their residential houses stand are their ancestral lands which they
have been occupying and possessing openly and continuously since time
immemorial; that their ownership thereof have been expressly recognized
in Proclamation No. 15 dated April 27, 1922 and recommended by the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for exclusion
from the coverage of the Busol Forest Reserve. They, thus, contended
that the demolition of their residential houses is a violation of their right
of possession and ownership of ancestral lands accorded by the
Constitution and the law, perforce, must be restrained.
On October 16 and 19, 2006, Regional Hearing Officer Atty. Brain S.
Masweng of the NCIP issued the two (2) assailed temporary restraining
orders (TRO) directing the petitioners and all persons acting for and in
their behalf to refrain from enforcing Demolition Advice dated September
18, 2006; Demolition Order dated September 19, 2006; Demolition Order
No. 25, Series of 2004; Demolition Order No. 33, Series of 2005; and
Demolition Order No. 28, Series of 2004, for a total period of twenty (20)
days.
Subsequently, the NCIP issued the other assailed Resolution dated
November 10, 2006 granting the private respondents' application for
preliminary injunction subject to the posting of an injunctive bond each in
the amount of P10,000.00.[3]
Acting on the petition for certiorari filed by petitioners,[4] the Court of Appeals
upheld the jurisdiction of the NCIP over the action filed by private respondents and
affirmed the temporary restraining orders dated October 16[5] and 19, 2006,[6] and
the Resolution dated November 10, 2006,[7] granting the application for a writ of
preliminary injunction, issued by the NCIP. The appellate court also ruled that
Baguio City is not exempt from the coverage of Republic Act No. 8371, otherwise
known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA).
Petitioners assert that the NCIP has no jurisdiction to hear and decide main actions
for injunction such as the one filed by private respondents. They claim that the NCIP
has the authority to issue temporary restraining orders and writs of preliminary
injunction only as auxiliary remedies to cases pending before it.
Further, the IPRA provides that Baguio City shall be governed by its Charter. Thus,
private respondents cannot claim their alleged ancestral lands under the provisions
of the IPRA.
Petitioners contend that private respondents are not entitled to the protection of an
injunctive writ because they encroached upon the Busol Forest Reservation and built
structures thereon without the requisite permit. Moreover, this Court, in Heirs of
Gumangan v. Court of Appeals,[8] had already declared that the Busol Forest
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