BY ROGER M.BALANZA

The Matigsalog indigenous people in Marilog District in Davao City are fighting over control of over more than 70,000 hectares of ancestral domain, as their cousins from Bukidnon reportedly continue to sell privileges to big business seeking leaseholds for large agribusiness ventures.
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has already split the area covered by Certificate ofAncestralDomans Title (CADT)   between the Bukidnon and Davao natives into two separate management bodies.
The split was made as NCIP found it issued only one CADT to the Federation of Manobo-Matigsalog Tribal Councils (FEMMATRICS) of Kitaotao in Bukidnon involving about 100,000 hectares that also included ancestraldomain lands in Marilog.
The split that delineated boundaries over ancestral domains in Bukidnon and Davao was through the efforts of Davao City Councilor Arnolfo Cabling when he was the chair of the Davao City Council committee on environment and natural resources.
FEMMATRICS is against the split and its officers reportedly are inking contracts with private entities over leasehold agreements on lands in Marilog sparking vehement protests from the Davao lumads belonging to the Manobo-Matigsalog Tribes City of Davao (MAMATRICD).

durianburgdavao blogmaster Roger Balanza with Mambo-o and Davao City councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling

Davao City councilor Datu Berino Mambo-o, chair of the committee on cultural minorities and Muslim affairs, said leaders of six Davao tribes are trying to resolve the conflict.
The communist New People’s Army (NPA) in a statement earlier branded Lito Gawilan, chair of FEMMATRICS, as a landgrabber for selling rights to ancestral domain lands in Marilog to big business.