Between July 2022 and December 2024, Karapatan recorded 119 extrajudicial killings tied to the Marcos Jr. administration’s counterinsurgency campaigns. The phrase “they call it development, but it means displacement,” spoken by Almirah Lidasan of the Moro-Christian Peoples Alliance, captures what Indigenous communities across the Philippines face daily—a cycle where government-backed projects, mining concessions, and renewable energy installations override ancestral claims, often by force.
The numbers point to a system under strain. Ancestral domains cover roughly 14 million hectares, but only a third have been formally titled. Meanwhile, human rights abuses against Indigenous peoples rose 62 percent year-on-year, affecting over 45,000 individuals. The push for renewable energy, mining for transition minerals, and overlapping jurisdictional claims have turned what was already a difficult legal process into a crisis of survival.
What Ancestral Lands Mean and Who Claims Them
The 1997 Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) gave Indigenous communities a legal tool to secure Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs) and approve or reject projects on their lands. But as of 2012, roughly 60 percent of national mining operations already sat on ancestral domains. The gap between law and enforcement is where violence enters.
Forces Driving the Crisis
The push for renewable energy has created a new front. Sourced from the Department of Energy’s Philippine Energy Plan 2023–2050, the government aims for at least 35 percent renewables by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040. Hydropower currently supplies 45 percent of the country’s renewable energy, and a quarter of over 400 proposed hydropower projects will be built on Indigenous lands. Solar farms in Ilocos Norte and nickel mines in Palawan and Zamboanga del Norte have displaced communities without proper FPIC.
Mining has accelerated sharply. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, 223,000 hectares were signed off for mining projects. The Philippines is the second-largest nickel exporter globally, and class 1 nickel was valued at PHP 238.9 billion last year. Much of that nickel comes from ancestral lands, where physical blockades—such as the February 2023 barricade against a nickel mine in Brooke’s Point, Palawan—have been met with military response.
Ted people are being red-tagged, falsely labeled as communist sympathizers, which then justifies surveillance, arrest, or worse. At least 215 schools have closed due to military operations, and leaders like Marcylyn Pilala, Sarah Alikes, and Petronila Guzman have been accused of terrorist financing under the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.
Jurisdictional Deadlocks and Overlapping Claims
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| Issue | NCIP Position | BTA/MIPA Position |
|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction over ancestral lands | National mandate under IPRA | BARMM authority under Bangsamoro Organic Law |
| Pending CADT applications | Should be processed by NCIP | Should be turned over to MIPA |
| MILF camp overlap | Camps Omar and Bader overlap with Teduray-Lambangian ancestral domains | Camps are part of normalization process for former combatants |
In the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the legal picture is especially tangled. The BTA issued a cease and desist order in 2019, halting the ancestral land certification process—a move the Commission on Human Rights said lacked legal basis. As a result, Indigenous groups lack CADTs, leaving them vulnerable to armed groups who claim the same land. As many as 85 non-Moro Indigenous leaders have been killed in BARMM in the last ten years.
A new memorandum of agreement being drafted between NCIP and the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs (MIPA) includes three contentious clauses meant to force collaboration. But lawmakers have pointed out that escalating these issues to the Intergovernmental Relations Body causes unnecessary delays. Meanwhile, the Teduray-Lambangian supreme tribal chieftain, Timuay labi Leticio Datuwata, has requested the removal of MILF camps that overlap with ancestral domains to prevent further bloodshed.
Witness Protection Falls Short
Jennevie Cornelio of the Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) reported that applications for the Witness Protection Program have been rejected, leaving Indigenous leaders who testify about killings without state protection. Authorities often cannot serve arrest warrants because the suspects are better armed than the police.
What Indigenous Communities and Allies Are Doing
The response has taken multiple forms, from legal petitions to physical blockades to international advocacy.
Pursuing CADT Applications Despite the Bottleneck
Securing a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title remains the primary legal route, though it can take years. The Pala’wan tribe in Palawan took seven years to title land on Mount Bulanjao. Communities can file applications through the NCIP regional office covering their area. The process involves boundary delineation, community census, and publication—steps that require resources many communities lack. Under the Bangsamoro IP Code, pending applications processed by NCIP are supposed to be turned over to MIPA, though in practice the transfer has stalled.
Building Transnational Solidarity
At an April 2025 forum at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, Indigenous leaders, advocates, and students gathered under the banner “Navigating the Indigenous Peoples Landscape.” Eloisa Mesina, chairperson of Katribu, drew a direct line between the struggle of Moro and Indigenous peoples in the Philippines and the Palestinian fight against occupation. After the forum, participants protested outside the venue. The logic: if land theft and occupation are global patterns, then solidarity must cross borders too.
Reporting to International Bodies
A report submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, compiled during the July 2024 visit of José Francisco Calà Tzay and Dr. Pichamon Yeophantong, documented 43 cases of rights violations by the Philippine government and private corporations. The report calls for an official investigation, a country visit by the UN Special Rapporteur, repeal of the Anti-Terrorism Law, abolition of the NTF-ELCAC, and an end to red-tagging. These recommendations now sit with international human rights mechanisms, though enforcement remains the open question.
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Community Barricades and Direct Action
When legal processes fail, communities sometimes resort to physical blockades. In February 2023, the Pala’wan people in Brooke’s Point, Palawan, erected a “people’s barricade” against a nickel mine. In Nueva Vizcaya, Tuwali residents were violently dispersed during a peaceful barricade against OceanaGold’s mining operations. The tactic carries high risk but has sometimes delayed or halted operations long enough to draw media attention.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between ancestral domain and ancestral land? â–ľ
How long does it take to get a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title? â–ľ
What is Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)? â–ľ
Which government agencies are involved in land grabbing? â–ľ
Why is the renewable energy push affecting Indigenous lands? â–ľ
Can Indigenous communities reject a mining project? â–ľ
What is red-tagging? â–ľ
Who can I contact to report a land rights violation? â–ľ
The battle for ancestral lands in the Philippines is not a single conflict; it is a web of legal, economic, and physical struggles playing out on nearly half the country’s land area. The tools exist—IPRA, CADTs, FPIC, international human rights mechanisms—but each is undercut by overlapping jurisdictions, corporate interests, and a security apparatus that treats Indigenous resistance as insurgency. For communities on the ground, the choice is often between accepting displacement or facing red-tagging and worse. What changes the equation is less a legal fix than political will—and that remains the scarcest resource of all.
If this was useful, you might also want to read our deeper look at ancestral domain protections and the gaps in enforcement.
Sources
Land Grabbing in Paradise: How Are Ancestral Domains Being Protected? — A companion piece examining specific cases of ancestral domain encroachment and the legal mechanisms meant to stop them.
Indigenous Peoples Condemn Land Grabbing, Violence in the Name of Development. Bulatlat, 2025.
New Violence Over Indigenous Lands Feared as Jurisdiction Clash in BARMM Remains Unresolved. Rappler, 2025.
Indigenous Rights Under Pressure as Philippine Minerals Boom. Dialogue Earth, 2025.
Philippine Energy Plan 2023–2050. Department of Energy.
