Ten years and thirty days ago today, a Letter of Opposition had been filed at the Land Management Bureau Benguet Province, against a survey conducted to disect the Landholding of Carmen Talna Sabaoan Molintas; the exact same protest put down at DENR and DAR by two eldest of her grandchildren.
While it is true"the inability for a Government to act on perceived and acknowledged problems frequently exacerbates suffering," I had been brought up to trust in the institution. I believe one can find many of those who still construe public service and exemplify leadership governance with sense of moral upright, especially in the higher echelon.
The family ancestral land had been mutilated on three counts. A first had been during the 1993 General Cadastral Survey when a charwoman took out her two rice paddies, to replace it with wasteland, while another spliced from the back border. Some years afterward, a chauffeur paid way for the insertion of an eastside lot, put it in the name of his father. Yet the 2012 survey was worse because all of it was torn apart by another so-thought highfalutin trustee.
By 2017, it was devastating to find informal settlers had cut down my grandfather's orchard to fit out structures. Even the space contoured for ritual, all with chicken coops, hog pens and pits; yet still ongoing. The pasturelands seen from the ancestral house turned into swamplands after a tilapia farm had been put without structural reinforcement; then abandoned after a storm ruined it. Out of stupidity it is told the land is sinking!
Far frenzy, my grandmother's tomb was dug out from where we put her down to rest and her remains thrown to the edge of the cliff; to be replaced by bodies of others not an heir.
Above all, the distortion of Tradition, at its core, is the saddest. How warped people think that language per 'se or the lack of it can determine ancestry. Or else the assertion that place of birth overrules descendancy. Yet I find many practice ritual, rather frequently and with ease, as 'partying for drunkedness'-----when the authentic underlying principles of Ancestral Land and Ancestral Authority is thwarted to accommodate the wrongful KAWATAN. There are three rudimentary principles to Nabaloi Inheritance which is the law for ancestral lands: Nabaloi Law and Ritual 1928.
The Nabaloi inheritance law is based on the principle that. the property should go to the next generation. Parents, brothers and sisters, and uncles and aunts may hold it in trust only.
Suita chaga kokoa niinta too ja angobda ni pilmero /Section 46 (The land is the property of the person who works it first.)
Suita too kakoato suta chaga i chaga nan amato ono apoto /Section 47 (The man owns the land which was the land of his father or ancestor)
Siuta bagaan agmabodin makeda ni kokoa /Section 56 (Servants do not get any property)
If it is to note, When a man will marry; he leaves home and goes to live with the wife. The man takes care of all their property. If the woman's property was inherited from her father, the man can not sell it if the woman does not wish. The man takes care of the working of the rice fields of his wife, and commands who shall work them.
No mangasauwa era ji maysia era'd asawara. Suta daki i makaampta ni amin ja kokoacha. No inpatawld amato siuta kokoa'n ni bei, agmabodin ja idako ni daki num agpian ni bei. Siuta daki i makaampta ja paobda ni payui ni asauwato tan num sepay onobda. No guaray kabadjo ni bei, mabodin pankabadjoan ni daki ankun agpian asauwato.
If you claim to be an Ybaloi born in Kapangan, then how is it you do not know that space does not belong to you.
Ancestral land issuance is an absolute discretion by parental authority, without need of equality justification or equity sorts. My father treasured these lands. It is time you take down those pitiful concrete structures that insult pristine scenery.
Carmen Talna Talna Sabaoan was betrothed sometime in 1928 to Dennis Masaao Molintas, then School Master. But he left as one of the first Non Christian State Scholars by the American Government in the Philippines, to complete his college degree at the University of the Philippines, College of Agriculture in Los Banos, for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and a certificate in Agricultural Education. Returning home he introduced langka, cocoa, star apple, avocado and the Zamboanga coffee variety; tucked in an immaculately beautiful orchard pastureland sprawl.
Kileman Sabaoan inherited one rice paddy as he lacked interest to work the land. Moreover, it was expected of him to work the lands of his wife Cemay Carias because that is TRADITION. Oradja Sabaoan by spouse Tediong Clemente had several lots, one borders the eastside of the family property. Ancestral land of Dong'ed by spouse Poclis Galian with some in the name Poclis Gaw Gaw; Ngamay by spouse Bantiloc Babsa'ay with occupant.
My debt of gratitude to Lolo Tatang's old guards Andres Cosalan & Bantas Suanding, children and families; CARP & IPRA Advocator Secretary Ernesto Garilao & The Burkley-Aquino Law Office; Presidential Intelligence Advisory General Anthony Alcantara & PNP General Oliver Enmodias; ICOM Philippines Trustee Gina Barte Araneta
My utmost admiration of the forthright of Aunt Evelyn Cosalan, Aunt Monique Wankey and Aunt Ibang Carame;
My profuse gratitude for the courage of the following Honourables, Institutional Leaders whose quality of righteousness set the record straight:
Kapangan Mayor Manny Fermin & Municipal Engineer George Junior Camhit
DTI Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau Chief Joseph Pamittan and MO Elizabeth Carsula Energy Regulatory Commission Chairperson Floresenda Digal
BENECOGM Engr. Melchor Licuben & Engr. Ramel Rifani
NBIInvestigator Atty. Stanley Dalayon NBI Attorney Directors Adrian Feudo, Don Hernandez, Virgilio Mendez and Cesar Bacani
DoF Director Nino Raymond Alvina & PASSO Cris Badival PB Director Roberto Canuto, Municipal Assessor Melanio Buya & staff
PARC Secretariat Director Isabelita Estrada, OIC Attorney Marjorie Ayson & DAR PARPO Director Virginia Aycud
For DENR, many many thanks for exerting the highest standards of engineering precision and professional ethics; Records and Knowledge Management Division Eng Victor Balde & Ms Juliet Uganza; CAR Regional Director, OIC Attorney Maximo Soriano and Engr Christopher Degay; Regional SMD Engr Joseph Paoad and Ms Analyn Ticong
