political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who may have
resettled outside their ancestral domains;
i) Indigenous Political Structures — refer to organizational and cultural leadership systems,
institutions, relationships, patterns and processes for decisionmaking and participation, identified by
ICCs/IPs such as, but not limited to, Council of Elders, Council of Timuays, Bodong Holders, or any other
tribunal or body of similar nature;
j) Individual Claims — refer to claims on land and rights thereon which have been devolved to
individuals, families and clans including, but not limited to, residential lots, rice terraces or paddies and tree
lots;
k) National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) — refers to the office created under this Act,
which shall be under the Office of the President, and which shall be the primary government agency
responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies, plans and programs to recognize, protect and
promote the rights of ICCs/IPs;
l) Native Title — refers to preconquest rights to lands and domains which, as far back as memory
reaches, have been held under a claim of private ownership by ICCs/IPs, have never been public lands and
are thus indisputably presumed to have been held that way since before the Spanish Conquest;
m) Nongovernment Organization — refers to a private, nonprofit voluntary organization that has been
organized primarily for the delivery of various services to the ICCs/IPs and has an established track record
for effectiveness and acceptability in the community where it serves;
n) People’s Organization — refers to a private, nonprofit voluntary organization of members of an
ICC/IP which is accepted as representative of such ICCs/IPs;
o) Sustainable Traditional Resource Rights — refer to the rights of ICCs/IPs to sustainably use,
manage, protect and conserve a) land, air, water, and minerals; b) plants, animals and other organisms; c)
collecting, fishing and hunting grounds; d) sacred sites; and e) other areas of economic, ceremonial and
aesthetic value in accordance with their indigenous knowledge, beliefs, systems and practices; and
p) Time Immemorial — refers to a period of time when as far back as memory can go, certain
ICCs/IPs are known to have occupied, possessed in the concept of owner, and utilized a defined territory
devolved to them, by operation of customary law or inherited from their ancestors, in accordance with their
customs and traditions.
CHAPTER IIIRights to Ancestral Domains
SECTION 4. Concept of Ancestral Lands/Domains. — Ancestral lands/domains shall include such
concepts of territories which cover not only the physical environment but the total environment including the
spiritual and cultural bonds to the areas which the ICCs/IPs possess, occupy and use and to which they
have claims of ownership.
SECTION 5. Indigenous Concept of Ownership. — Indigenous concept of ownership sustains the
view that ancestral domains and all resources found therein shall serve as the material bases of their
cultural integrity. The indigenous concept of ownership generally holds that ancestral domains are the