Nine indigenous leaders from the Molbog and Palaw’an tribes carried out a hunger strike outside the Department of Agrarian Reform office in Diliman, Quezon City, to advocate for the reinstatement of the notice of coverage regarding their ancestral lands on Bugsuk Island, Balabac.
Residents in Sitio Mariahangin, meanwhile, reported rejecting offers of money in exchange for resettlement, with the most recent attempt occurring on December 4.
The indigenous peoples (IPs), under the umbrella of the Sambilog-Balik Bugsuk Movement (SBBM), embarked on a nine-day hunger strike, urging Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Conrado Estrella III to return the notice of coverage (NOC) to 10,821 hectares of land in Bugsuk Island, Balabac town in southern Palawan, including their ancestral land
Disputes regarding their domicile have intensified in the recent year due to what the residents state are attempts to drive them out of their ancestral lands in Mariahangin and Bugsuk Island, including unidentified armed men who shot at the residents in late June this year and ran into the island’s forests, to the unease of the residents.
Oscar Pelayo Jr., the son of Sitio Mariahangin’s chairman, noted that after the pandemic, the island’s residents have only received visits from people offering money or directly offering resettlement, with the most recent attempt coming this week from a person claiming to be unaffiliated with any private or government entity.
In a call, Pelayo Jr. relayed to Palawan News the story of an individual known as “Agila” who, accompanied by a security detail, attempted to enter the island on December 4. The individual allegedly offered money to the residents in exchange for them demolishing their houses and leaving the island.
Agila, according to Pelayo Jr., only began visiting the island this year and was not present in previous groups of people who visited Sitio Mariahangin and made similar promises. He gained notoriety among the indigenous residents for sending private, individual messages on Messenger under the pseudonym “Agila,” in which he offered approximately ₱400,000 for the IPs and locals to relocate.
As the first speedboat approached, the residents immediately recognized him. Pelayo Jr. stated that they stopped him and his Blue Guard security from alighting on the shore.
Pelayo said the residents were assisted by local enforcement.
”Alam na rin ng mga pulis yan. Katunayan, mga pulis din yung kasama namin sa nag-usap kahapon para mapaalis yung mga speedboat na iyon. Tinulak na lang namin yung speedboat nila para di na sila makababa. Dalawang grupo kasi, yung dito pumunta sa harap namin, di namin napababa. Yun doon naman sa kabilang dulo nakababa na. Nabulaga kami kahapon,” Pelayo said.
Pelayo Jr. expressed that although they will continue to assert their rights to their ancestral land, they acknowledged the numerous challenges they are facing.
In June 2024, days before the unidentified armed men shot at and “terrorized” the locals in Sitio Mariahangin, the regional representatives from DAR Mimaropa were also prevented from setting foot on the island by the IPs.
DAR Mimaropa was accompanied by local enforcement as they were set to explain the removal of Sitio Mariahangin from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The island was revoked from the program in 2023 because DAR claimed that the land was not suited for more kinds of agricultural crops.
Had the 2014 NOC not been revoked due to Sitio Mariahangin’s disqualification, the land would have been parceled out to local farmers and indigenous residents of the area.
The residents have since taken to publicly rallying support for their cause, appealing to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) as well as to nonprofit human rights groups and social media, especially after reporting numerous visitors offering ₱75,000-₱400,000 to residents on the island in November 2024.
Divide and conquer?
The indigenous peoples mandatory representative (IPMR) in Balabac, Christian Ariel Monsarapa, decried the strike and the protest, detaching himself and other Molbog tribe members in a letter sent to members of the media in Manila and SBBM’s partners.
In the letter, Monsarapa condemned SBBM’s claim that the areas of Sitio Marianghangin and Bugsuk Island were part of their ancestral land.
He stated that SBBM was endangering the peace by claiming Bugsuk Island for their own interests, as he reiterated that the lands were rightfully owned with a title that was dated before they applied for a certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) for the said lands.
Monsarapa expressed his skepticism regarding the authentic ancestry of the indigenous members of SBBM, asserting that they were not “real” Molbog since they originated from the mainland.
”Ang maling paggamit ng paggiging ‘katutubo’ ay isang malaking kawalang-galang sa aming pagkakakilanlan at mga tunay na pakikibaka para sa aming karapatan sa lupaing ninuno,” Monsarapa said.
This question of legitimacy was also implied in a statement given by San Miguel Corporation (SMC), which stated that they recognized the “importance of respecting the rights of legitimate indigenous communities” when it came to agrarian disputes.
In their response, SBBM stated that the letter was a “divide-and-conquer scheme,” part of a larger campaign to destabilize the Molbog and Palaw’an IPs’ own campaign to reclaim their own lands, and meant to put a division between the indigenous peoples of Balabac.
“We reject the baseless claim that the [SBBM] is ‘destroying a long-standing history of respect and unity’ due to alleged ‘wrongdoings’ in the letter from the IPMR Municipal of Balabac. SBBM is a movement of victims of corporate land grabbing and Martial Law, composed of indigenous Palaw’an, Cagayanin, and Molbog peoples in Mariahangin island, as well as non-indigenous farmers and fishers. It was established in 1986 as the Balik Bugsuk Movement to fight land grabbing, later merging with SAMBILOG in 2013 to address ‘water grabbing’ by Jewelmer Corporation,” as stated in their response on their Facebook page.
They also claimed that SBBM remained independent and non-violent, accepting no “favors, salaries, nor incentives from corporations oppressing indigenous and local communities” for 38 years of work in wanting justice for the forced evictions and displacement of IPs in Bugsuk Island in the 1970s.
For their part, they also decried Monsarapa as lacking action and contributing to what they deemed as “corporate tactics of divide and conquer.”.
”We ask: Where was the IPMR of Balabac on June 29, 2024, when armed men invaded and fired at residents of Mariahangin, mostly indigenous Molbog families? The systematic efforts by corporations like SMC and Jewelmer to legitimize their control by using supposed Indigenous representatives, like Ariel Monsarapa—appointed by Mayor Shuaib Astami, who violated IPRA in 2011—must be challenged.”
Furthermore, Monsarapa also said in his letter that SBBM waived their rights to the claim of ancestral lands when they applied for the CARP, claiming that that action was akin to recognizing that the land was already privately owned and was therefore contrary to the indigenous concept of ownership under the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) Law.
SBBM stated that they did file for the land to be covered under CARP due to Section 56 of RA 8731 or the IPRA Law, which stated that only lands without titles may be given to IPs. Their application in 2012 was given recognition, and the NOC was awarded in 2014.
However, because the land was not CARP-able, DAR revoked the NOC in 2023, returning the holdings to SMC.
The Indigenous Representatives in Palawan previously had difficulties in maintaining records and proper definitions as to who should be counted as a trueborn member of an IP tribe, although some IPMRs in Southern Palawan were participating in talks earlier this year about a possible electronic registry of their members.
Due to decades of displacement, lack of governmental records, intermarriage between tribesmen and outsiders, and the Palawan IPs cultures typically being shy, nomadic, and rooted in oral tradition instead of written ones, there were no clear rules on their own society’s side to check legitimacy, except for word of mouth and recent memory.
Even at the barangay level, contention between larger tribes such as the Tagbanua of Puerto Princesa City is present. The Tagbanua have infighting when choosing who gets to represent an entire group of underrepresented and secretive civil society members.
Sources close to Palawan News relayed that while some tribes recognize the current Masicampo assigned by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), other Tagbanua elders from the northern barangays and municipalities claimed that he had mixed blood or was otherwise not chosen as chieftain according to the original traditions of the Tagbanua.
Building on beaches
In a statement made by SMC and published through several media outlets on December 2, they confirmed that they owned 7,000 hectares of titled properties in Bugsuk Island via the purchase of companies that have had the original title issued in 1974 as part of the Land Reform Program.
Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., former CEO of SMC, received the land holdings from then-President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in exchange for some of Cojuangco’s agricultural lands.
In the statement, SMC reiterated that they did not own any property in Marianghangin, which is an island close to Bugsuk and is governed under Bugsuk Island’s barangay.
SMC previously denied any ecotourism projects being developed in the area. However, a document uploaded to the MIMAROPA Environmental Management Bureau’s (EMB) website confirmed at least one development on the property in Bugsuk Island owned by a subsidiary of SMC, namely Bricktree Properties, Inc., which, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), was registered in 2019.
In the Environmental Impact Statement Summary for the Public (ESP) of the proposed Bugsuk Island Eco-Tourism Development project, 5567.54 hectares will be used for this development.
Large parts of Brgy. Bugsuk and Brgy. Sebaring—around 1,141.84 hectares—are slated for infrastructure development, including the main Bugsuk Island Resort, an airport containing an airstrip and passenger terminal, a sanitary landfill, and a sewage treatment plant, along with its own water and power supply.
The construction of the main resort will take place between 2025 and 2029, but the internal crew will have access to other support facilities like an airstrip, lodging, and fuel pumps as early as next year.
Although separate from the mainland of Bugsuk Island, it is notable that Sitio Marianghangin is only 6.9 miles. away from the center of Brgy. Bugsuk and about 7 miles away from the location of the proposed airstrip.
Own home
On Friday, 18-year-old Rustene Leoncio was rushed to the Quirino Medical Center on the fifth day of the hunger strike. Leoncio, a member of Balabac’s Molbog tribe, was one of the youngest members of the group protesting for their right to live in their own home.
Those from Balabac were namely Angelica Nasiron, Romilano Calo, Rustene Dave Leoncio, Alham Tahil, Jhonny Pelayo, Tarhata Pelayo, Eusebio Pelayo, Benjamin Bahandi, and Benjie Basbas. They have been in Manila for three months, leaving their family behind in order to raise their pleas to the DAR.
The strike will continue onto December 10, the celebration of International Human Rights Day. Sec. As of this posting, Sec. Estrella has yet to issue a statement on the indigenous people’s plea as they continue their protest right outside their office’s gates.
Pelayo Jr. said that their families would not have planned to leave the island to cause such disruptions if their own situation weren’t so dire.
“Gusto lang ng mga IP dito na ibalik ang notice of coverage para matapos na ang gulo na ito. Kami po na nandito sa isla, kami ang ginigipit. Gusto lang namin ng kapayapaan,” he said.
