Army hosts dialogue over land dispute

DIALOGUE --- Lt. Col. Lauro Oliveros, commander of the Army's 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion, speaks before tribal leaders and representatives of a former logging firm to settle their land dispute in Ampatuan, Maguindanao. (Photo by 1st MIB)

AMPATUAN, Maguindanao --- The Army’s 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion (MIB) hosted a dialogue last April 16 between the Indigenous Peoples’  community and representatives of a former logging firm-turned coffee planters in a bid to avoid bloody confrontation between the IPs and the firm’s security personnel.

Lt. Col. Lauro Oliveros, commander of the First MIB stationed here, believes that dialogue is the best means to settle dispute than resort to unnecessary confrontation.

Representatives of Magsaysay and Sons (M&S) Company and Manobo tribe’s people sat down in the negotiating table inside the battalion headquarters and gladly welcomed the mediation by Oliveros.

Also in attendance were village officials of Barangays Tomicor and Saniag, both in Ampatuan town, Arlene Catuluyan of the Office of Southern Cultural Communities - Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (OSCC-ARMM), M&S manager Joselito Invento, and Rolando Baloria, the firm’s chief security officer.

Oliveros said the issue of overlapping boundaries between the tracts of land owned by the M&S Company and the ancestral domain of the IPs has been a perennial conflict that resulted to animosity between the two groups.

“This is the same major issue unearthed during the Community Support Program conducted in Barangay Tomicor that the communist New Peoples Army was exploiting to gain popular support and recruit the IPs to fight against the government,” Oliveros said.

He said the dialogue cleared and ruled out the misconceptions about the company and enlightened the misunderstanding between the two parties.

“It’s good we have the meeting of minds here,” Oliveros told both parties and lauded that both showed their willingness to solve the issue regarding the land dispute for them to move forward and work together in order to wipe out misunderstanding and confusion in the area.

Oliveros said more dialogues would be conducted, this time with the participation of representatives from concerned government agencies that could help address the land issue.

Both sides readily agreed to another or more meetings as tribal leaders lauded the Army for initiating the dialogue.

Invento said the dialogue gave the company the opportunity to explain and clarify matters affecting the firm and the tribal community.

Invento said it was the first time that company representatives have directly engaged the IP leaders to settle the misunderstanding.

Oliveros did not stop at settling the misunderstanding over boundaries but urged both sides to help in the preservation of the remaining forest in the mountains of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat.

“This gathering is not for the military, it is for you people here,” Oliveros said, adding: “Your soldiers come and go but you stay here because your life is here.”

A total log ban is currently in effect in the component areas of the ARMM, namely the cities of Marawi and Lamitan, and the provinces of Maguindanao, Sulu, Basilan, Lanao del Sur, and Tawi-tawi.

The M&S firm, though not anymore engaged in logging activities, has planted coffee and other agricultural crops in the areas where they used to cut trees, including those near the IP-dominated Tomicor and Saniag villages. (Edwin Fernandez, PNA - Cotabato)