Ex-NCIP official files raps vs indigenous community leaders in Bugsuk, Palawan

Mariahangin residents gathered in Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, Justice Hall, Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan | Photo by Sambilog – Balik Bugsuk Movement

By DOMINIC GUTOMAN
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Nine residents of Sitio Mariahangin, Bugsuk, Palawan were added to the criminal complaint filed by the former executive of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), days after their hunger strike in Manila.

They were charged with “grave coercion” filed by Caesar M. Ortega, former NCIP director for the Ancestral Domain Office (ADO) and former officer-in-charge executive director, who identifies himself as the “authorized representative of the nine (9) land owners of the nine titled properties situated within Bowen Island (Sitio Mariahangin).”

He initially filed a complaint against Eusebio Pelayo on November 14, 2024 for “physically preventing him from stepping on the shore.” Pelayo denied the allegations in interviews with Bulatlat in December during their nine-day hunger strike in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) main office in Quezon City. In total, 10 residents were charged with grave coercion.

“The case they are filing against me, I have nothing to do with it. I am just supporting my indigenous spouse. I am behind them. I don’t know who filed the case against me. I’m just helping my family with [land dispute] issues we are facing in Mariahangin,” Pelayo said in Filipino.

Read: Molbog leader charged with grave coercion for asserting right to ancestral land

Among the newly charged is Angelica Nasiron, a Molbog who also joined the hunger strike in Manila. “The allegations of Ortega are not true. I am not present in the place of the incident during that time,” said Nasiron in a statement in Filipino.

The criminal complaint stems from an incident on June 27, 2024 when a DAR staff presented Certificate of Finality (COF) issued by DAR, informing the local residents that their lands are not subject to the government’s agrarian reform program. The DAR staff was accompanied by Ortega and alleged members of San Miguel Corporation (SMC), residents claimed. Ortega said in his complaint that the 10 residents “physically prevented him from stepping on the shore against his will and consent, in violation of his legal right to alight on the beach for the purpose of furnishing copies of COF.”

Days after informing the local residents about their dispute, 16 unidentified armed men tried to enter their community and fired six shots on June 29. Residents also reported that drones were being used to conduct surveillance. The series of harassment caused trauma to the residents, affecting their livelihood.

Sambilog-Balik Bugsuk Movement accompanied the 10 indigenous and non-indigenous residents of Sitio Mariahangin to various government offices in Puerto Princesa. They initially went to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office to prepare for their counter-affidavits against Ortega.

The residents also faced the local government of Puerto Princesa, seeking help from ongoing harassment and intimidation from armed men who are attempting to enter their community.

Palawan Governor Dennis Socrates vowed to facilitate a dialogue among Mariahangin residents, NCIP, Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and the Philippine National Police (PNP). The governor also plans to invite SMC, according to Sambilog.

Bulatlat closely followed the protest actions of Mariahangin residents as they went to Manila. Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrela III did not face them even after their nine-day hunger strike in front of his office.

The residents called out DAR for revoking the Notice of Coverage (NOC) of 10,821 hectares of land of the indigenous peoples in Bugsuk, Palawan, under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER), initially issued in 2014.

Most of the residents who were charged with criminal complaints are active in defending their ancestral lands. Some of them went to Manila to seek help in asserting their collective rights. (RTS, DAA, RVO)


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