It would be difficult to ascertain if indigenous communities would find the permit system through the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the LGU appropriate or even sensitive to indigenous legal systems, and indigenous concepts of ownership and resource use. The Revised Fisheries Code was enacted without undergoing a process of consultation among the indigenous fisherfolk communities, and this has had a telling effect on the law’s present form: it is virtually silent on the rights of indigenous communities over ancestral waters and prior rights over traditional fishing grounds. While the Fisheries Code highlights the regulation of economic access to the 15-kilometer zone of coastal waters, indigenous communities may stress other non-economic issues, such as self-delineation of traditional territories, cultural artifacts and conflicting cultural values over aquatic resources. The latter may be cause for reservations in participating in FARMCs, apart from significant concerns over cultural integrity and traditional lifeways. Clash with Traditional Rules of Governance Under Customary Rules, the governance of the ancestral waters is the sole responsibility of the Tagbanwa elders or mamepet. The IPRA, which recognizes their rights to assert and enforce their indigenous knowledge systems and practices, and customary laws and traditions further strengthen this over any part of their ancestral domains. This directly contradicts the mandate of the LGU given by the Local Government Code where the Sanggunian Bayan to grant fishery privileges such as permits and licenses to erect structure, harvest products and operate fishing vessels within the municipal waters. Furthermore, the LGU as well including the national government cannot unilaterally issue any resource utilization and/or management instrument over any part of the ancestral waters. Under IPRA, any issuance of the aforementioned instruments shall need to go through the process of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) issuance of FPIC for all activities within the coverage of the CADT. Map 3. Map indicating the various zones of the Tagbanwa Ancestral Lands and Waters 16