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RESOLUTION ASKING THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES (DENR) TO HOLD IN ABEYANCE THE ISSUANCE OF CERTIFICATE OF ANCESTRAL DOMAIN CLAIMS (CADCs) PENDING APPROVAL OF THE NEW INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S RESOURCE ACT AND APPROVAL OF THE NEW INDIGENOUS PEOPLE RESOURCE ACT AND THE COMPLETION OF PCSD ECANIZATION

WHEREAS, R.A.7611 otherwise known as the Strategic Plan for Palawan Act has been signed into law on June 19, 1992, Sec. 4 of which provides that SEP shall guide the local government of Palawan and the government agencies concerned in the formulation and implementation of plans, programs and projects affecting said province;

WHEREAS, Palawan Council for Sustainable Development is the administrative machinery mandated to govern, implement and set policy direction of the Strategic Environment Plan;

WHEREAS, the PCSD is currently establishing an Environmentally Critical Areas Network (ECAN), a graded system of protection and development control over the whole of Palawan, including its tribal lans, forest, mines, agricultural areas, settlement areas, small islands, mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass beds and the surrounding sea as SEP's main strategy;

WHEREAS, under Section 7 (3) of the said Law, the protection of tribal people and the preservation of their culture is specifically emphazised;

WHEREAS, Section 11 of R.A. 7611 provides for the ECAN zoning of the ares traditionally occupied by cultural minorites which comprise both land and sea areas and these shall be treated in the same graded system of control and prohibition as in other ECAN zones;

WHEREAS, there is till a way for administrative flexibility and interplay of decision making between the DENR and the PCSD, based on the DOJ Opinion No. 136s, 1994 dated September 26, 1994, which means that R.A.7611 intends the two agencies to work closely together and evolve a workable arrangement taking into consideration the technical expertise of the DENR and the policy directions of the PCSD;

WHEREAS, in consideration of the aforementioned, it was unanimously agreed during the 52nd PCSD Council Meeting that the DENR Secretary be asked to hold in abeyance granting but not processing of Certificate of Ancestral Domain (CADCs) pending approval of the new Indigeous People's Resource Act and completion of ECANIZATION of the whole province to prevent possible land use conflicts in the future;

NOW, THEREFORE, upon unanimous decision of the Council:

RESOLVE, as it is hereby RESOLVED that the Council endorse this resolution to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), House of Representatives, the Senate and the Office of the President (OP) for appropriate action;

APPROVED AND ADOPTED this 24th day of October, 1997 at the Sangguniang Bayan Session Hall, Municipality of Coron, Palawan.

Certified True and Correct:

The Palawan Council for Sustainable Development is a national agency under
the Office of the President of the Philippines