04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly In addition, petitioners claim that IPRA prescribes that customary laws shall be applied first in disputes involving property, succession and land,[173] and that such laws shall likewise be used in disputes involving indigenous peoples.[174] They assert that "[w]hen the dispute involves a member of an [indigenous cultural community and another who is not], a resolution of such a dispute based on customary laws. . . would clearly be a denial of due process. . . [because those who are not indigenous peoples] do not know what these customary laws are."[175] Petitioners' concerns are unfounded. The fact that the NCIP is composed of members of the indigenous peoples does not mean that it (the NCIP) is incapable, or will appear to be so incapable, of delivering justice to the non-indigenous peoples. A person's possession of the trait of impartiality desirable of a judge has nothing to do with his or her ethnic roots. In this wise, the indigenous peoples are as capable of rendering justice as the non-indigenous peoples for, certainly, the latter have no monopoly of the concept of justice. In any case, there are sufficient checks in the law against any abuse by the NCIP of its quasi-judicial powers. Section 67 states that the decision of the NCIP shall be appealable to the Court of Appeals by petition for review. The regular remedies under our rules of procedure are likewise available to any party aggrieved by the decision of the NCIP. Anent the use of customary laws in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domains, suffice it to say that such is allowed under paragraph 2, Section 5 of Article XII of the Constitution. Said provision states, "The Congress may provide for the applicability of customary laws governing property rights and relations in determining the ownership and extent of the ancestral domains." Notably, the use of customary laws under IPRA is not absolute, for the law speaks merely of primacy of use.[176] The IPRA prescribes the application of such customary laws where these present a workable solution acceptable to the parties, who are members of the same indigenous group. This interpretation is supported by Section 1, Rule IX of the Implementing Rules which states: RULE IX. JURISDICTION AND PROCEDURES FOR ENFORCEMENT OF RIGHTS Section 1. Primacy of Customary Law. All conflicts related to ancestral domains and lands, involving ICCs/IPs, such as but not limited to conflicting claims and boundary disputes, shall be resolved by the concerned parties through the application of customary laws in the area where the disputed ancestral domain or land is located. All conflicts related to the ancestral domains or lands where one of the parties is a non-ICC/IP or where the dispute could not be resolved through customary law shall be heard and adjudicated in accordance with the Rules on Pleadings, Practice and Procedures Before the NCIP to be adopted hereafter. (Emphasis supplied.) The application of customary law is limited to disputes concerning property elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/36882 105/148