Cruz and Europa v. Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources

Upon due application and compliance with the procedure provided under the law and upon finding by the NCIP that the application is meritorious, the NCIP shall issue a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) in the name of the community concerned.[122] The allocation of lands within the ancestral domain to any individual or indigenous corporate (family or clan) claimants is left to the ICCs/IPs concerned to decide in accordance with customs and traditions.[123] With respect to ancestral lands outside the ancestral domain, the NCIP issues a Certificate of Ancestral Land Title (CALT).[124] CADT's and CALT's issued under the IPRA shall be registered by the NCIP before the Register of Deeds in the place where the property is situated.[125] (1) Right to Ancestral Domains and Ancestral Lands: How Acquired The rights of the ICCs/IPs to their ancestral domains and ancestral lands may be acquired in two modes: (1) by native title over both ancestral lands and domains; or (2) by torrens title under the Public Land Act and the Land Registration Act with respect to ancestral lands only. (2) The Concept of Native Title Native title is defined as: "Sec. 3 [l]. Native Title-- refers to pre-conquest rights to lands and domains which, as far back as memory reaches, have been held under a claim of private ownership by ICCs/IPs, have never been public lands and are thus indisputably presumed to have been held that way since before the Spanish Conquest."[126] Native title refers to ICCs/IPs' preconquest rights to lands and domains held under a claim of private ownership as far back as memory reaches. These lands are deemed never to have been public lands and are indisputably presumed to have been held that way since before the Spanish Conquest. The rights of ICCs/IPs to their ancestral domains (which also include ancestral lands) by virtue of native title shall be recognized and respected.[127] Formal recognition, when solicited by ICCs/IPs concerned, shall be embodied in a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), which shall recognize the title of the concerned ICCs/IPs over the territories identified and delineated.[128] Like a torrens title, a CADT is evidence of private ownership of land by native title. Native title, however, is a right of private ownership peculiarly granted to ICCs/IPs over their ancestral lands and domains. The IPRA categorically declares ancestral lands and domains held by native title as never to have been public land. Domains and lands held under native title are, therefore, indisputably presumed to have never been public lands and are private. (a) Cariño v. Insular Government[129] The concept of native title in the IPRA was taken from the 1909 case of Cariño v. Insular Government.[130] Cariño firmly established a concept of private land title that existed irrespective of any royal grant from the State. In 1903, Don Mateo Cariño, an Ibaloi, sought to register with the land registration court 146 hectares of land in Baguio Municipality, Benguet Province. He claimed that this land had been possessed and occupied by his