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Hope thrives. Dakula Bebe Coro longed for the day that his tribe of Mamanwas will be the recognized owner of their land. Through Agata’s support, his tribe has finally been awarded their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title, making them the rightful bearers of their property.
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Leaders of Agata IP Sectors, Community Relations Officers Jonathan Bañez and Mario Bantasan, and NCIP’s Elsie Namuag are unified in continuing the full realization of CADT 237.
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A thanksgiving ritual manifested the Mamanwas enthusiasm in taking the road to progress now that they are the legally-recognized owners of their ancestral land.
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Agata’s Jonathan Banez shakes the hand of Datu Mapaso, who in his old age, never thought that his dream of obtaining the tribe’s CADT will finally be realized.
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Mamanwas have acquired new skills in the field of agriculture and other livelihood projects through the proper management of their royalty shares from the company and the establishment of the Mabakas Techno Demo Farm school.
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Mobilizing progress. The vehicles acquired by the Agata Mamanwa Tribal Organization and Coro Mamanwa Management Association speed-up the delivery of goods to tribe-owned sari-sari stores, rice and feeds center, and other livelihood establishments in the community.
Indigenous Mamanwa communities in Agata finally receive the title to their ancestral domain
Santiago, Agusan del Norte, Philippines / January 2018 – Agata’s Indigenous Mamanwas are ecstatic. The years of enduring difficulties, economic hardship – and even discrimination, at some point – seem to have further punctuated the joy of finally receiving their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), making them the legal, rightful bearers of their property and the recognized masters of their land.
Their success has been celebrated by fellow lumads from neighboring Barangays Colorado, E. Morgado and Binuangan – all within the Agata Mineral Processing Sharing Agreement (MPSA) area in this province.
The years and months leading to the actual awarding of the CADT saw the strong cooperation between Agata, tribal chieftains Dakula Coro Rogelio D. Bebe and Dakula Mapaso Rolito M. Moron, as well as the national and local offices of the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP).
Last December 23, the tribe was finally awarded CADT 237 at the central office of the NCIP – a milestone that underscores genuine and mutual support between indigenous cultural communities and the mining company.
TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. (TVIRD) operates the Agata Nickel Project in the adjacent towns of Tubay, Jabonga and Santiago, home of the proud Mamanwa Tribe.
A hand up
The 4,995-hectare Agata MPSA spans four IP sectors: the Coro Mamanwa Tribal Organization, Mamanwa-Manobo Tribal Organization, Duyangan Mamanwa Tribal Orgnization and Mapaso Mamanwa-Manobo Tribal Organization. These sectors are comprised of over 600 tribesmen across an area of more than 3,000 hectares.
The process of claiming the title began in 2010 – four years prior to bringing nickel mining operations on-stream in Tubay Municipality.
The company supported the tribe every step of the way, beginning with their unification and extending to support for technical and legal requirements: survey mapping and delineation, cross-sectoral meetings and extensive data gathering activities. In no small measure, the IP groups also invested their own resources in the processing of their CADT.
“We used to eat once or twice a day only. Today, we regularly have rice on our plates,” said Datu Bebe.
“Now that we have CADT 237 in hand, we should not stop from fully achieving our potential with Agata to support and guide us,” he added.
Extended family
All four IP sectors lie near the Kalinawan River, an old trading route stretching 29 kilometers from Lake Mainit and traversing the Agata MPSA towards Butuan Bay. The tributary was adopted by Agata along with nearby communities who continue to cooperate in keeping it the cleanest inland body of water in Caraga.
Geographically speaking, these sectors are legal recipients of mining royalties, except for the Binuangan Sector which was not included in the declaration of MPSA coverage. However, Agata’s IP beneficiaries agreed to “adopt” Binuangan as part of CADT 237 since they share the same bloodline.
NCIP further recommended the same and decided with finality to include Binuangan in processing the claim.
Proper use
Further to providing the tribe their Royalty Share, Agata enjoined the Mamanwas to craft the Community Resource Development Program (CRDP), which is aimed at ensuring the proper allocation of royalties to sustainable projects that will go beyond the life of the mine.
These joint efforts have seen the birth of the Mabakas Techno Demo Farm in 2018 – and which has produced 150 Organic Farming Technology graduates on its first year of operations. It likewise offers Livestock Production and Vermiculture courses for neighboring communities.
The institution has also produced 11 Cacao ‘doctors’ trained by the Department of Agriculture and accredited as trainers. Mabakas is the only farm school in the region that offers these courses that make students eligible for TESDA NC2 certification.
With land to call their own, the Mamanwas of Agata are now equipped with the skills and the financial know-how to fully utilize the fruits of the earth. And more than masters of their own land, they now look to the future as masters of their own destiny.
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