ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the developments and analyzes the forces that led to the redefinition of sovereignty over the Philippine public domain. It discusses the concept of land ownership in the country, with a focus on land in the public domain. The chapter discusses the challenges to the concept and control of public land that have come from indigenous peoples. It discusses the responses from government on behalf of the state. The outcome was a paradigm shift where the State recognized ancestral domains and the role of local communities in the management of natural resources in the country. The battle of an organized group of indigenous peoples to save a homeland from a dam project became an important landmark in the challenge for control over ancestral domains in the country. A Cordillera Peoples Alliance was formed to strengthen the push for recognition of their ancestral domain. In 1970s, the government stand towards devastation of the natural resources was one of denial.
