04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly forest and the animals. This is their environment in its totality. Their existence as indigenous peoples is manifested in their own lives through political, economic, socio-cultural and spiritual practices. The IPs culture is the living and irrefutable proof to this. Their survival depends on securing or acquiring land rights; asserting their rights to it; and depending on it. Otherwise, IPs shall cease to exist as distinct peoples."[110] To recognize the rights of the indigenous peoples effectively, Senator Flavier proposed a bill based on two postulates: (1) the concept of native title; and (2) the principle of parens patriae. According to Senator Flavier, "[w]hile our legal tradition subscribes to the Regalian Doctrine reinstated in Section 2, Article XII of the 1987 Constitution," our "decisional laws" and jurisprudence passed by the State have "made exception to the doctrine." This exception was first laid down in the case of Cariño v. Insular Government where: "x x x the court has recognized long occupancy of land by an indigenous member of the cultural communities as one of private ownership, which, in legal concept, is termed "native title." This ruling has not been overturned. In fact, it was affirmed in subsequent cases."[111] Following Cariño, the State passed Act No. 926, Act No. 2874, C.A. No. 141, P.D. 705, P.D. 410, P.D. 1529, R.A. 6734 (the Organic Act for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao). These laws, explicitly or implicitly, and liberally or restrictively, recognized "native title" or "private right" and the existence of ancestral lands and domains. Despite the passage of these laws, however, Senator Flavier continued: "x x x the executive department of government since the American occupation has not implemented the policy. In fact, it was more honored in its breach than in its observance, its wanton disregard shown during the period unto the Commonwealth and the early years of the Philippine Republic when government organized and supported massive resettlement of the people to the land of the ICCs." Senate Bill No. 1728 seeks to genuinely recognize the IPs right to own and possess their ancestral land. The bill was prepared also under the principle of parens patriae inherent in the supreme power of the State and deeply embedded in Philippine legal tradition. This principle mandates that persons suffering from serious disadvantage or handicap, which places them in a position of actual inequality in their relation or transaction with others, are entitled to the protection of the State. Senate Bill No. 1728 was passed on Third Reading by twenty-one (21) Senators voting in favor and none against, with no abstention.[112] elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/36882 25/148