Kiltepan cacophony of land disputes search for justice

HAPPY WEEKEND 

(2nd part of a series)  

Kiltepan elder and Kagawad Enrique Palsiw appeals, “Idwani ay suluten mi, pangaasi yu met ah, adalen yu nan wada ay sakripisyo mi  ken dakayu ay inmum una ay nin-adal. Kukua mi sa ay iKiltepan. Nalawag sa. Isunga sika ay mendeclare damet ilako, ay apo unayen.”  (Now that we trace  our land, we ask you to heed our sacrifices, you who first got educated.  Kiltepan is our land. That is clear. So you who declare the land then sell it, lord have mercy).

Palsiw must be referring to former Mountain Province governor and congressman Alfredo Lamen having sold  a tax-declared lot to businessman Wilson Capuyan who traces his roots from Sagada. Or he may also be referring  to other iKIltepan as a certain Marcelino Lomiwes who sold  some parcels of land to Lamen or to other individuals.

Where the land sales done by  the Kiltepan people must have been legitimate leaves questions that Kiltepan people must be questioning their own people who sold  their respective lots. Kiltepan folks said lots sold to some people of Sagada Poblacion were in parcels small enough to be their own but these lots expanded to hectares when tax-declared by the buyers.

This leaves questions of KIltepan people who tax declared  big parcels of lots in hectares and sold to other individuals to mention a certain Marcelino Lomiwes who sold 23 hectares of tax declared land to Alfredo Lamen.

Tekeng sacred grounds sold by Maleng-an as noted in legal documents personally told this writer that he did not sell the questioned lot to Lamen and who further averred  in a case of forcible entry filed by Capuyan against Maleng-an that he denied the sale thereof.

Now, are third level land buyers who bought land from second level land tax declarants. They may be innocent purchasers and have bought land they believe are sold by legitimate and real owners. This in the case of Capuyan who must have bought land identified by the seller Lamen.

Apparently, the fight of the Kiltepan people is not only the  Tekeng  ritual site but the whole of  Pandey and other surrounding  areas  tax-declared  by individuals from  Sagada Poblacion. So history attests to the fight of Kiltepan people against individuals in previous court cases covering nearby areas in sitio Batalao.

Palsiw continued,”Nan original boundary et id Nangonogan. |The original boundary of  Kiltepan

(Antadao from Poblacion Patay) is Nangonogan|. 

Other portions of nearby Nangonogan at sitio Dummao  and Batalaw within the ancestral domain of Kiltepan are  tax-declared by  Sagada Poblacion individuals. One church leader who does not trace ancestry from Kiltepan has 5 hectares and a former mayor who also does not trace ancestry from Kiltepan has 8 hectares registered as titled property. A former government employee  of the municipality has hectares of land declared and titled and you will  wonder and sympathize with Kiltepan people how their land could have been tax-declared or titled  by particularly influential persons of Sagada Poblacion who don’t trace their  ancestry from Kiltepan.  

Stories of Kiltepan folks are one in saying sale happened between parties where the seller from Kiltepan sold a small area reasonable enough within customary bounds to consider his own  eventually expanded to hectares tax-declared by the buyer, or a small parcel lot given to one who asked for a space to till which eventually got tax-declared in hectares and hectares in his name. Or maybe other ways.

Meantime, transfer of land via  sales on the Kiltepan property forwards  the veracity  of ownership of innocent and legitimate purchasers in good faith. It would be injustice to grab the land of those who in their honest belief and in good faith bought lands they believed they are buying from legitimate sellers. For who would like to buy land that is questionable. The law protects  innocent purchasers.

The law in customary practice has a rule  to make sure that land is being sold to rightful persons.

Land is first offered to immediate relatives within the line where the lot comes from then to relatives on the other side. It shall then be offered to adjacent owners of the lot should there be no takers from immediate relatives. And where adjacent owners not buy it shall be sold to the public within the ancestral domain/tribe. In Sagada, a standing and oral belief and practice is that land shall not be sold to those outside of Sagada. Meaning, not sold to anyone not related to Sagada ascendants and descendants in the first degree.  

The above rule refers to individually-owned  lots referring to residential lots or ricefields where a person has specially inherited or acquired in other ways. Nevertheless, selling one’s land is frowned at much as  children or children’s children shall inherit said property but seemingly  understood when the individual lot is sold for the education of children, thus the saying heared among folks, ‘nan inuskilam nan tawid mo’ (what you gained in education is your inheritance).

A ‘tayan’, ‘lakon’ or a ‘saguday’ which is a woodlot in most cases or communal land of the umili which  is a pasture land or watershed or spring in most cases however is basically and should not be sold. This, based on the customary practice and belief that a tayan or a lakon or saguday or a communal land is for the clan and its members to enjoy in the next generation, and for the communal land for the community to enjoy. 

A communal land for one located at nearby Lamagan within the Kiltepan area is a large tract of pastureland considered communal by folks of Kiltepan as noted in interviews.  This however is tax-declared by one of Kiltepan people, Eduardo Latawan who declared 68 hectares of Lamagan or what is popularly called  Marlboro Country in his name. Shall this communal land cease to be communal and instead owned and enjoyed by one person or shall this communal land be asserted by the people of Kiltepan as their collective land. (to be continued next issue)