Decision
37
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G.R. No. 224469
,
changes to the land may be possible. These uses must also be reconciled with
the ongoing communal nature of the IPs or ICCs' attachment to the land. 88
Professor (now Justice) Leonen, a highly esteemed scholar in
constitutional law and the law on land and natural resources, shares this
understanding about the foregoing limitations to the sui generis IP title. He
underscores this limitation by highlighting the indigenous concept of
ownership as expressed in Section 5 of IPRA that "ancestral domains and all
resources found therein shall serve as the material bases of [the IPs']
cultural integrity," and not generally for exploitative purposes, and that
ancestral domains including sustainable traditional resource rights are the IP' s
private but community property which belongs to all generations and
therefore cannot be sold, disposed or destroyed. 89 He stressed that IPRA
introduced a new package of ownership rights distinct from those under
civil law. Subject to this limitation, IP title entitles the right to choose the
uses to which the land is put and to enjoy its economic fruits. 90
This IP concept of ownership is based on customary law and traced
its origin to time immemorial "native title." Section 5 of IPRA strengthened
these customary practices by emphasizing that ancestral lands and domains
are the ICCs' and IPs' "private but community property which belongs to
all generations." Section 56 of the IPRA even recognized the IPs' vested
rights based on their existing property regime. With the passage of IPRA,
formal recognition of the IPs' "native title" was attributed to their ancestral
lands and domains. A Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) may now
be issued by the NCIP to ICCs and IPs.
v. Reconciling IP rights to preserve
cultural integrity and claim or title to
ancestral domains and lands with the
State's jura regalia and police power
The State's jurd regalia is affirmed in Article XII, Section 2, of the
Constitution:
All lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum,
and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or
timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources are owned by
the State. With the exception of agricultural lands, all other natural
resources shall not be alienated. The exploration, development, and
utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and
supervision of the State. The State may directly undertake such activities,
or it may enter into co-production, joint venture, or production-sharing
agreements with Filipino citizens, or corporations or associations at least
sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens. Such
ss Jd.
Prof. Mario Victor "Marvic" F, Leonen, "The Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act: An Overview of its
Contents," PHILJA Judicial Journal (2002).
90
Supra note 8.3.
89
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