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“The court’s ruling disregarded compelling evidence of the Marihangin community’s ancestral claims, including photographs of sacred burial grounds and the testimonies of three Molbog residents."
Despite ongoing threats and harassment for asserting their collective right to ancestral land, Molbog indigenous people and non-Indigenous residents of Sitio Marihangin, Bugsuk, Palawan, marked Eid’l Adha with solemn prayers for peace and justice. As part of their sacred and enduring tradition, they also lit candles at the burial grounds of their departed loved ones, honoring their memory.
“The latest incarceration of Pelayo, a vocal advocate for ancestral land and water rights, is yet another example of legal tactics weaponized to suppress the community’s resistance."
Residents said that the private blue guards are deployed by the JMV Security Services again, the same agency that deployed 80 armed private blue guards in their community on April 4.
Most of the arrested residents are known leaders who are actively speaking and campaigning against the entry of a private corporation in their island.
"Our community was once full of life, peaceful, but now we are being harassed by corporations trying to claim our land. We do not even know where they supposedly bought our land from. We just want a peaceful life."
Nearly 20 years in the making, their application for CADT remains uncertain. Current Molbog indigenous leaders said that ten of their elders have already died waiting in vain.
Under the 2025 National Expenditure Program, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development’s budget was cut down from a proposed P4.22 million to P3.55 million. The DHSUD, accordingly, announced that it was lowering its target of building low-cost housing units from 4 million by 2028 to 3.2 million. Kadamay, however, asserts that this target is too low to accommodate the current housing backlog, which the group estimates to reach “as high as 12 million” by 2028.
In total, ten indigenous and non-indigenous residents of Sitio Mariahangin are currently facing a criminal complaint 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).”
“[Secretary] Estrella, we are pleading to you. Please have mercy on us. The attacks against us have gone too far and our human rights are being violated. We can no longer go to school because of what San Miguel Corporation (SMC) is doing to us. Many young people among us still want to study, but I am one of those who had to stop because we can no longer live in peace there," Rustene Pelayo Leoncio said in Filipino.
Residents said that in 2023, SMC initially presented a “resettlement program" for Mariahangin families, offering money amounting to P75,000 with land or P100,000 if without land. Recently, the offer has increased to P400,000 per family to urge them to vacate their ancestral lands.
In 2023, DAR revoked the NOC of the 10,821 hectares of land of the indigenous peoples in Bugsuk, Palawan which was initially issued in 2014. Residents said that this decision by DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III prompted escalated harassment and intimidation in their community in Sitio Mariahangin.
Eusebio Pelayo, 69, a community leader and a Molbog resident in Mariahangin, Bugsuk, Palawan, is summoned to court on December 4 due to a criminal complaint filed by Caesar M. Ortega, described as the “Authorized Representative of Land owners situated within Bowen Island” in the document. Ortega is NCIP’s former OIC executive director of the NCIP and Ancestral Domain Office’s (ADO) former director.
“We cannot sleep well these days because we fear that they will enter the community. Our husbands have skipped work and our livelihoods have been paralyzed just so we can defend our ancestral land from their attempts to seize it. Our children sometimes do not have anything to eat.”
In a press conference, Sept. 24, resident Tarhata Pelayo said that drones are being used by armed men who are known in their community to be affiliated with SMC to watch them every night.
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