04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly public or private lands, recognized the separability of title over lands and that over minerals which may be found therein. [133] On the other hand, the United States viewed natural resources as a source of wealth for its nationals. As the owner of natural resources over the Philippines after the latter's cession from Spain, the United States saw it fit to allow both Filipino and American citizens to explore and exploit minerals in public lands, and to grant patents to private mineral lands. A person who acquired ownership over a parcel of private mineral land pursuant to the laws then prevailing could exclude other persons, even the State, from exploiting minerals within his property.[134] Although the United States made a distinction between minerals found in public lands and those found in private lands, title in these minerals was in all cases sourced from the State. The framers of the 1935 Constitution found it necessary to maintain the State's ownership over natural resources to insure their conservation for future generations of Filipinos, to prevent foreign control of the country through economic domination; and to avoid situations whereby the Philippines would become a source of international conflicts, thereby posing danger to its internal security and independence.[135] The declaration of State ownership and control over minerals and other natural resources in the 1935 Constitution was reiterated in both the 1973[136] and 1987 Constitutions.[137] Having ruled that the natural resources which may be found within the ancestral domains belong to the State, the Court deems it necessary to clarify that the jurisdiction of the NCIP with respect to ancestral domains under Section 52 [i] of IPRA extends only to the lands and not to the natural resources therein. Section 52[i] provides: Turnover of Areas Within Ancestral Domains Managed by Other Government Agencies. -- The Chairperson of the NCIP shall certify that the area covered is an ancestral domain. The secretaries of the Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Interior and Local Government, and Department of Justice, the Commissioner of the National Development Corporation, and any other government agency claiming jurisdiction over the area shall be notified thereof. Such notification shall terminate any legal basis for the jurisdiction previously claimed. Undoubtedly, certain areas that are claimed as ancestral domains may still be under the administration of other agencies of the Government, such as the Department of Agrarian Reform, with respect to agricultural lands, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources with respect to timber, forest and mineral lands. Upon the certification of these areas as ancestral domain following the procedure outlined in Sections 51 to 53 of the IPRA, jurisdiction of the government agency or agencies concerned over lands forming part thereof ceases. Nevertheless, the jurisdiction of government agencies over the natural resources within the ancestral domains does not terminate by such certification because said agencies are elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/36882 99/148