Palawan land dispute puts Molbog community at centre of mining law debate

Nearly 300 residents of Sitio Mariahangin on Bugsuk Island in Palawan, many of them Molbog and Cagayanen Indigenous people, are fighting eviction after being sued by nine private landowners claiming title over their village.

Court summons were issued to 282 residents in December, accusing them of squatting on land they say has been their ancestral home for generations. Human rights groups say the case follows years of harassment linked to an ecotourism project by Bricktree Properties, a subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation, on neighbouring Bugsuk and Mariahangin Islands.

Residents have applied for a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) since 2005, but their claim remains unresolved. In the meantime, overlapping laws – including the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act 1997 and the Philippine Mining Act 1995 – have created a complex legal landscape where private titles, agrarian reform and ancestral domain all collide.

Senator Robinhood Padilla has denounced the treatment of Mariahangin residents as a human rights violation, while Senator Risa Hontiveros and other lawmakers are using the case to renew calls for an Alternative Minerals Management Bill (AMMB). Versions of the AMMB in both houses of Congress aim to scrap or overhaul the 1995 mining law and ensure Indigenous peoples and local communities receive a fair share of benefits from mineral development.

Church leaders and civil society groups say the dispute is part of a wider pattern of land grabs in southern Palawan, where Indigenous communities report being barred from fishing grounds and farmland and pressured to relocate. International NGOs have urged the government to halt evictions and recognise the Molbog and Palaw’an people as legitimate custodians of their land and waters.

Advocates say the outcome in Mariahangin will signal whether the Philippines prioritises critical minerals for export, or the rights of communities who argue they have cared for the island long before tourism and mining arrived.