Cruz and Europa v. Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources

PUNO, J.: PRECIS A classic essay on the utility of history was written in 1874 by Friedrich Nietzsche entitled "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life." Expounding on Nietzsche's essay, Judge Richard Posner[1] wrote:[2] "Law is the most historically oriented, or if you like the most backward-looking, the most 'past- dependent,' of the professions. It venerates tradition, precedent, pedigree, ritual, custom, ancient practices, ancient texts, archaic terminology, maturity, wisdom, seniority, gerontocracy, and interpretation conceived of as a method of recovering history. It is suspicious of innovation, discontinuities, 'paradigm shifts,' and the energy and brashness of youth. These ingrained attitudes are obstacles to anyone who wants to re-orient law in a more pragmatic direction. But, by the same token, pragmatic jurisprudence must come to terms with history." When Congress enacted the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), it introduced radical concepts into the Philippine legal system which appear to collide with settled constitutional and jural precepts on state ownership of land and other natural resources. The sense and subtleties of this law cannot be appreciated without considering its distinct sociology and the labyrinths of its history. This Opinion attempts to interpret IPRA by discovering its soul shrouded by the mist of our history. After all, the IPRA was enacted by Congress not only to fulfill the constitutional mandate of protecting the indigenous cultural communities' right to their ancestral land but more importantly, to correct a grave historical injustice to our indigenous people. This Opinion discusses the following: I. The Development of the Regalian Doctrine in the Philippine Legal System. A. The Laws of the Indies B. Valenton v. Murciano C. The Public Land Acts and the Torrens System D. The Philippine Constitutions II. The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA). A. Indigenous Peoples 1. Indigenous Peoples: Their History 2. Their Concept of Land III. The IPRA is a Novel Piece of Legislation. A. Legislative History IV. The Provisions of the IPRA Do Not Contravene the Constitution. A. Ancestral domains and ancestral lands are the private property of indigenous peoples and do not constitute part of the land of the public domain. 1. The right to ancestral domains and ancestral lands: how acquired 2. The concept of native title (a) Cariño v. Insular Government