Filipino tribes win ancestral land after two decades of struggle

RIGHTS

After more than two decades of legal battles, bureaucratic delays and relentless struggle, the Teduray and Lambangian indigenous communities in the Bangsamoro region of the Philippines have secured formal recognition of 117,101 hectares of ancestral land — a hard-won victory that now leaves them with another hurdle: protecting it for generations to come. The original claim was for an area almost twice the size at 201,850 hectares.

The country's Constitution and the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (CADT) protect indigenous communities’ rights to their ancestral lands, which are held collectively for present and future generations. A CADT formally recognises these rights.

Ancestral domains generally cannot be sold to “outsiders”, and development projects are subject to free, prior and informed consent from the affected communities, which collectively have the right over the lands.

Community elder Timuay Alim Bandara emphasises the achievement belongs to the younger generation and says it underscores the duty of safeguarding the document and the physical land for future generations. “What we are doing here is because of you . . . not for the elders, but for you, the young Teduray and Lambangian people,” he notes.

The road to recognition was far from easy. Jurisdictional complexities and legal overlaps created significant delays.

But for now “the biggest challenge is how to organise the people living around these parcels of land, because the 117,000 hectares are scattered across our entire claim,” says Bandara, arguing that unified stewardship remains vital.

He also stresses the importance of strengthening community-level policies to curb unauthorised land transactions and says a higher body may be needed to keep watch given the vastness of the ancestral land.

South Upi Mayor Helen Benito-Padua, a descendant of the Teduray-Lambangian indigenous community, became emotional during the gathering.

“To my fellow leaders, especially in South Upi, may we continue to stand by and respect our ancestral land. May we show true unity and respect the hardship of the people who fought to get this title,” she says. “To my fellow Teduray and Lambangian, let us fight for it. Let us not be ashamed of it, ‘let us not sell it or let money sway us’. Money can be seen while we are alive, but the respect and this title that we can pass on to our descendants cannot be brought back once we ruin it.”

ABOVE Rites ceremony marking the official recognition of ancestral land in Maguindanao del Sur on October 23, 2026

PHOTO Ferdinandh Cabrera/Rappler

What we are doing here is because of you . . . not for the elders, but for you, the young Teduray and Lambangian people.

Timuay Alim Bandara

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