Defining the Extents and Asserting Indigenous Rights over the Ancestral Lands and Waters The Mapping Initiative The DENR issued Department Administrative Order No. (DAO #02) in 1992. DAO #02 provided the legal framework and process for delineating ancestral domain claims. Under the Administrative Order, the Tagbanwa proceeded to collect affidavits, sketch maps, historical accounts and other proofs to support their CADC application. The collation of evidences was undertaken in order to support the Calamian Tagbanwa’s assertion as the first group of settlers in the area and to prove their continued occupation and use of their homelands since time immemorial. Historical accounts of their histories of place names throughout Coron and the adjoining coral reef systems were documented. The process that the Tagbanwa undertook to formally define the extents and generate evidences and proofs of time-immemorial ownership and governance of their ancestral domains are detailed as follows: 1. Community Meetings and Informal Exchanges In time, community meetings and informal exchanges were organized among the elders to determine what the traditional home ranges of the Calamian Tagbanwa were. After a long process of exchanging oral histories in the sitios and barangay meetings, a picture of the components of the ancestral domain claim began to emerge. Additionally, a formal barangay meeting for each community organization was organized to explain the prescriptions and requirements of DAO #02. 2. Bases for the Boundaries of the Ancestral Domain Despite the variety of marine resources in their homelands, the Calamian Tagbanwa’s singular criteria for the setting of marine boundaries was the sea territory passed on to them by their ancestors and used continuously to the present day. In general, coral reefs formed the backbone of their traditional fishing grounds. The outer limits of the boundaries were the diving areas for marine species that have been traditionally important to the Calamian Tagbanwa’s livelihood, such as balat and samung. The ancestral waters included the panyaan, the fishing grounds of their ancestors, fish sanctuaries and other reserved areas, diving areas, inter-tidal flats where shells and other crustaceans were foraged, sandy and muddy shoals, atolls hosting cave swiftlets, deep sea areas and other collection areas for marine species other than fish such as oysters. The ancestral lands included the islands and settlements that composed the home ranges of Calamian Tagbanwa’s ancestors when the clans were still nomadic fisherfolk and foragers. Natural features such as mountain ranges, peaks or the roosting area of the snake-like iraw balidbiran bound off ancestral lands on Busuanga Island. 11