Palawan IPs out to boost ancestral claims

Legitimate Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) of the Molbog tribe from Balabac, Palawan, are here in Manila to correct the growing wave of misinformation surrounding their ancestral domain claims over the islands of Balabac.

In a press conference Friday afternoon in Quezon City, the group said, central to the Molbog’s clarification was the exposure of Sambilog (claiming to be another tribal group) surrender of ancestral claims through their previous application under the agrarian reform program, a legal route that presupposes state ownership of land and directly contradicts any assertion of ancestral domain. 

The Molbog delegation emphasized that one cannot claim both legal routes — to apply under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program is to legally renounce any claim of prior indigenous possession under IPRA (Indigenous Peoples Rights Act). 

Furthermore, the delegation highlighted that Sambilog is composed of migrant settlers from various ethnic backgrounds, including Cagayanen and Pala’wan, who cannot meet the legal standard of “since time immemorial” possession due to the absence of cultural cohesion and historical continuity, as required by National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) guidelines and jurisprudence.

Tribal Chieftain Hamidon Monsarapa,  Indigenous People Mandatory Representative and current Councilor of Balabac, reiterated that the Molbogs’ Certificate of Ancestral Domain application is rooted in law and tradition — not manufactured narratives. 

He was joined by two former Mariahangin residents, Rowena Adel and Noreta Ismael, who gave firsthand accounts of Sambilog’s internal practices: scripting cultural performances, teaching non-Molbog residents to mimic indigenous customs and manufacturing visual content for social media to feign legitimacy.

“Everything was rehearsed. We knew what to say when officials visited. But it was all an act,” one resident confessed.