Probe displaced Aetas – Hontiveros
SEN. Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros on Wednesday called for an inquiry on the displacement of Aeta communities in Capas, Tarlac as a result of the New Clark City (NCC) development project.
257 urging the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities to conduct a probe on the reported eviction of Aetas by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
In November, the BCDA served an eviction notice to Aeta families living in Barangay Aranguren supposedly to give way to the construction of a road connecting Clark International Airport to NCC.
Hontiveros noted that “there is an estimated 15,000 local farmers and 20,000 Aeta and Abelling indigenous communities likely to be affected” by the BCDA project.
“Development should not come at the expense of the rights and welfare of indigenous communities and of the environment,” she said.
She added that indigenous communities in the area is protected by Republic Act 8371, or the Indigenous People’s Rights Act .
While the BCDA claimed that there are no ancestral domains in the area, Hontiveros said that this “obscures the fact that Indigenous People’s (IP) communities have always faced enormous ments of ancestral lands.” -
- uments to prove ownership has impeded the capacity of our indigenous people to protect their lands. This is a failure of the bureaucracy and not of IP communities,” she added.
The affected Aeta community had al
Domain Titles in 1999, 2014 and in 2019 for 18,000 hectares in Capas, Tarlac.
BCDA has maintained that it followed due process by consulting the Capas local government, and that they are offering
- ing to P300,000 per hectare or P30 per square meter.
But Hontiveros said financial compensation is not enough. “We need to understand that it is not just homes and livelihood that are being taken away from them. For IP communities, their cultural identity is tied to their lands.”
She said honoring and cherishing our indigenous cultures and cultural communities should not be merely paid lip-service.
She added that there is a need to ensure that development comes in a way that indigenous people, cultures, and the environment are protected and remain sustainable. “We need to build greener and smarter cities that include everyone.”