Urges President Duterte, Zubiris to Enforce IP Rights in Ancestral Lands
(April 20, 2022)
The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) condemned the assault on presidential candidate Leody de Guzman and unarmed lumads (indigenous peoples) – including women and children – in barangay San Jose, Quezon, Bukidnon last April 19 by security guards of an agribusiness corporation allegedly owned and controlled by Mayor Pablo Lorenzo III of Quezon municipality.
At the same time, FFF Board Chairman and former Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor urged President Duterte, Bukidnon Governor Jose Zubiri, Jr. and his son – incumbent Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri – to act decisively to prevent further violence and to enforce the ancestral land rights of lumads.
Five (5) persons were reportedly wounded by the security personnel of the Kiantig Development Corporation (KDC), using shotguns, M16 and M14 high powered weapons. De Guzman was unhurt in the incident. Police and military personnel, who were in the vicinity during the shootings, reportedly did not intervene.
Earlier on April 18, Supreme Datu Rolando Anglao of the Manobo-Pulangiyon tribe met with Mayor Lorenzo, Chairman Allen Capuyan of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and other government representatives. He informed them that the lumads would be reclaiming the 1,111-hectare area in barangays Butong and San Jose that was officially recognized last October 6, 2021 by the NCIP as the ancestral domain of the tribe – being the “rightful owner and possessor” thereof.
Since 2017, about a thousand lumad families have encamped in tents and makeshift shelters along the national highway in Quezon just outside their ancestral land, which have been fenced off by the KDC and planted to pineapple previously for Del Monte Philippines and lately to Lapanday Corporation.
According to FFF Board Chairman Leonardo Q. Montemayor, the disputed area in sitio Kiantig had been originally leased to the Montalvan Ranch in the 1960s. Somehow, the KDC under Lorenzo managed to secure leasehold rights over the property. In 2018, the 25-year lease period ended, and the area was reclassified as forest land under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. During the Ramos presidency, top DENR officials declared that the area was part of the ancestral domain of the Manobo-Pulangiyon, pursuant to the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 (Republic Act No. 8371).
Montemayor called on Governor Zubiri to live up to his title, “Datu Intunda” (Chief Guardian Angel), which was conferred on him by the Seven Tribes of Bukidnon in the 1970s.
