G.R. No. 184869
September 21, 2010
Facts:
Central Mindanao University (CMU)
is a chartered educational institution owned and run by the State. In
Presidential Proclamation 476, 3,401 hectares of lands of the public domain in
Bukidnon was reserved as a school site for CMU which eventually obtained title
in its name over 3,080 hectares of those lands.
Meanwhile, the government distributed more than 300 hectares of the
remaining untitled lands to several tribes belonging to the areas cultural
communities.
Forty-five years later President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Presidential Proclamation 310 that takes 670
hectares from CMUs registered lands for distribution to indigenous peoples and
cultural communities in Barangay Musuan, Maramag, Bukidnon.
CMU filed a petition for
prohibition seeking to stop the implementation of Presidential Proclamation 310
and have it declared unconstitutional.
Issue:
W/N Presidential Proclamation
issued by President Arroyo to distribute to the ICCP in Bukidnon valid?
Ruling:
No it is not valid. The lands by
their character have become inalienable from the moment President Garcia
dedicated them for CMUs use in scientific and technological research in the
field of agriculture. They have ceased to be alienable public lands.
Besides, when Congress enacted the
Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) or Republic Act 8371[9] in
1997, it provided in Section
56 that property rights within the ancestral domains already existing and/or
vested upon its effectivity shall be recognized and respected. In this case, ownership over the subject lands had been vested in
CMU as early as 1958. Consequently, transferring the lands in 2003 to the
indigenous peoples around the area is not in accord with the IPRA.
Therefore, Presidential Proclamation
310 as null and void for being contrary to law and public policy.
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