The Indigenous Peoples Right Act ( IPRA )

 The Philippine Constitution of 1987 explicitly recognizes the rights of indigenous cultural communities. As
stated in the Constitution Section 22, Article II: “The State recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous
cultural communities within the framework of national unity and development.” Section 5, Article XII: “The
State, subject to provisions of this Constitution and national development policies and programs shall protect
the rights of the indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral lands to ensure their economic, social and
cultural well-being. The Congress may provide for the applicability of customary laws governing property
rights or relations in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domain.” Section 15, Article X: “There
shall be created autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras consisting of provinces, cities,
municipalities and geographical areas sharing common and distinctive historical and cultural heritage,
economic and social structures, and other relevant characteristics within the framework of this Constitution.”
11 Section 18, Article X: “The Congress shall enact an organic act for each autonomous region with the
assistance and participation of the regional consultative commission…. The organic act shall define the basic
structure of government for the region consisting of the executive department and legislative assembly…. The
organic acts shall likewise provide for special courts with personal, family and property law jurisdiction
consistent with the provisions of this Constitution and national laws.”
 In 1997, the Philippine Government enacted Republic Act No. 8371, known as the Indigenous Peoples‟ Rights
Act (IPRA), to give effect to the constitutional recognition of indigenous peoples‟ rights. The IPRA recognizes
indigenous peoples‟ inherent rights, including their right to self-determination, to ancestral domains and the
applicability of customary laws governing property rights, to self-determined development and to the
requirement that free prior informed consent be obtained in relation to any developments that have impact on
them. It also recognized ancestral domain rights, acknowledging indigenous peoples‟ time immemorial
collective possession of their ancestral domains and establishing mechanisms for these to be delineated and
formalized.
 Right to Ancestral Domains/ Ancestral Lands - ensures that the rights of ownership and possession of ICCs/IPs
of their ancestral domains shall be recognized and protected.
 Right to Self-Governance and Empowerment - recognizes the inherent right of ICCs/IPs to self-governance
and self-determination and respects the integrity of their values, practices and institutions. Consequently, the
state shall guarantee the right of ICCs/IPs to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
 Social Justice and Human Rights - ensures that the employment of any form of coercion against ICCs/IPs shall
be dealt with by law.
 Cultural Integrity - includes respect, recognition and protection of the right of ICCs/IPs to preserve and protect
their culture, traditions and institutions. It shall consider these rights in the formulation and application of
national plans and policies. Through the IPRA that created the NCIP, IPs can apply for certificates of ancestral
domain title (CADT) and certificates of ancestral land title (CALT). The application for a CADT can either be
through direct application or conversion of a Certification of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC) to CADT.
CADCs are claims of ownership of Indigenous Peoples to their Ancestral Domains granted by the DENR
through Department Administrative Order No.2 (DAO-2).
 The IPRA provides that development programs, projects, and activities must be developed along the fourfold
agenda of recognition and protection of ancestral domain/land rights, self-governance and empowerment,
cultural integrity, and social justice and human rights.
 Right to Ancestral Land/Domain - The law restores the rights of indigenous peoples over their ancestral lands
and ancestral domains.
 The term ancestral land under the IPRA refers to lands occupied by individuals, families, and clans who are
members of indigenous cultural communities, including residential lots, rice terraces or paddies, private
forests, swidden farms, and tree lots.
 Ancestral domains are defined as areas generally belonging to indigenous cultural communities, including
ancestral lands, forests, pasture, residential and agricultural lands, hunting grounds, worship areas, and lands
no longer occupied exclusively by indigenous cultural communities but to which they had traditional access,
particularly the home ranges of indigenous cultural communities who are still nomadic or shifting cultivators.
Ancestral domains also include inland waters and coastal areas and natural resources therein.
 Right to Self-Governance and Empowerment - The IPRA upholds the right of indigenous peoples to self-
governance and empowerment. The IRR further define the range of the exercise of these rights. These are the
right to pursue their economic, social, and cultural development; to use commonly accepted justice systems,
conflict resolution mechanism, peace building process, and customary laws; to participate in decision making;
to maintain and develop indigenous political structures; to have mandatory representation in policymaking
bodies; to determine their own priorities for development; to establish their tribal barangay (village) and
equivalent voting procedures; and to organize people’s organizations. Indigenous peoples may now also utilize
a vital instrument for their empowerment—the principle of free and prior informed consent (FPIC)
 Right to Cultural Integrity - The IPRA and its IRR put forward procedures and mechanisms for the recognition
of indigenous peoples’ right to cultural integrity. They incorporate such provisions as the constitutional and
legal framework for the right to cultural integrity, the conceptual framework for cultural integrity, the specific
rights pertinent thereto, and the procedures for the recognition of these rights, including the right to indigenous
 culture, customs, and traditions; right to establish and control educational learning systems; recognition of
cultural diversity; right to name, identity, and history; community intellectual rights; protection of indigenous
sacred places; right to protection of indigenous knowledge; and the right to science and technology.
 Social Justice and Human Rights - Recognition of and respect for fundamental human rights are also
safeguarded by the IPRA. The law contains specific provisions that ensure that indigenous peoples, just like
other human beings, will enjoy these rights: the right to life, development, and civil liberties; political rights;
freedom of association; nondiscrimination; equal protection; and right to peace and social justice.
 (Art. 16, Sec. 12), created the NCIP as “the primary government agency for the formulation and
implementation of policies, plans and programs to promote and protect the rights and well-being of the
ICCs/IPs and their ancestral domains as well as their rights thereto.”
 Indigenous Cultural Communities/ Indigenous Peoples - refer to a group of people or homogenous
societies identified by self-aspiration and ascription by others, who have continuously lived as organized
community on communally bounded and defined territory, and who have, under claims of ownership since time
immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs,
traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have through resistance to political, social and cultural
inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures, became historically differentiated from the
majority of Filipinos.
 Ancestral Domains - subject to Section 56 hereof, refers to all areas generally belonging to ICCs/IPs
comprising lands, inland waters, coastal areas and natural resources therein, held under a claim of ownership,
occupied or possessed by ICC/IPs, by themselves or through continuously to the present except when
interrupted by war, force majeure or displacement by force, deceit, stealth or as a consequence of government
projects or any other voluntary dealings entered into by government and private individuals/ corporations, and
which are necessary to ensure their economic, social and cultural welfare.
 Ancestral Lands - subject to Section 56 hereof, refers to land occupied, possessed and utilized by individuals,
families and clans who are members of the ICCs/IPs since time immemorial, by themselves or through their
predecessors-in-interest, under claims of individual or traditional group ownership, continuously, to the
present except when interrupted by war, force majeure or displacement by force, deceit, stealth, or as a
consequence of government projects and other voluntary dealings entered into by government and private
individuals/ corporations, including, but not limited to, residential lots, rice terraces or paddies, private forests,
swidden farms and tree lots
 Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title - refers to a title formally recognizing the rights of possession and
ownership of ICCs/IPs over their ancestral domains identified and delineated in accordance with this law
(IPRA)
 Certificate of Ancestral Land Title - refers to a title formally recognizing the rights of possession and
ownership of ICCs/IPs over their ancestral lands
 National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) - refers to the office created under the IPRA, which
shall be under the Office of the President, and which shall be the primary government agency responsible for
the formulation and implementation of policies, plans and programs to recognize, protect and promote the
rights of ICCs/IPs