Heritage preservation, ancestral rights collide over Baguio's oldest hotel

Casa Vallejo is a boutique hotel in Baugio City that is touted as one of the oldest American structures in Baguio City, having been established in 1909. Among the facilities the hotel offers is the renowned Hill Station restaurant , a cinema house that shows old and indie Filipino films for free, a bookstore dedicated to Filipino authors, and a spa. But some see Casa Vallejo as something more than a place where tourists can find accommodations. Being one of just two establishments in Baguio City that survived World War II in its original form, the Casa is part of the city's historic heritage. Concerned citizen's, however, fear that this heritage may disappear in the effort to restore the ancestral rights of the Ibaloi indegenous people. Last Oct. 22, 2013, heirs of a late Ibaloi local named Cosen Piraso, represented by a certain Richard Acop, Joan Gorio, Manuel Nimer and the Register of Deeds of Baguio City, filed before the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) a petition for a writ of possession on the Casa Vallejo property, saying that the Ibaloi family have owned the land "since pre-Hispanic times." On Jan. 3 of this year, the owners of Casa Vallejo received a notice from NCIP saying that a writ of possession has already been granted to the petitioners. The tenants of Casa Vallejo must, thus, vacate the area on or before Jan. 10, which the NCIP later moved to Jan. 14. But on the supposed day of eviction, tenants of Casa Vallejo together with its loyal customers, some academicians, artists and cultural rights groups camped in front of the hotel entrance to protest the eviction. On the same day, NCIP chairperson Leonor Quintayo issued a status quo order "so as not to complicate the issues" citing that the case is pending at the Supreme Court and is also the subject of a congressional inquiry. In a forum titled "Casa Vallejo and Beyond: Understanding the Ancestral Land Issue in Baguio” held at the University of the Philippines- Baguio last Jan. 24, groups in favor of cultural heritage preservation slammed the NCIP for its issuance, allegedly without due process, of the two certificates of ancestral land titles (CALTs) to the Ibaloi family who claims ownership of the Casa Vallejo property. "There should be an inventory of pending CALT and CADT (Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title) applications so that people will be informed,” said University of Cordillera College of Law dean Atty. Reynaldo Agrazamendez during the forum. Fueling the fear of Casa Vallejo tenants that the historic hotel would be demolished to make way for other enterprises like a call-center, Agrazamendez warned that there was no law barring indigenous claimants from selling their lands to non-indigenous people, making heritage sites vulnerable to destruction. Threatened by ancestral land claims Cordillera People's Alliance ,adviser Joanna Cariño shared Agrazamendez's view, according to a special report aired Tuesday morning on GMA News TV's “News-to-Go”. Cariño said that if the land where Casa Vallejo stands would be awarded to the indigenous family who is claiming it, other heritage sites in Baguio City might also suffer the same fate with claimants using the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) to pursue their claims. "Baguio is land scarce, maliit na siyudad na ang dami-daming tao. So many of the immigrants, even those who have acquired lands, let's say legally, are threatened by ancestral land claims," Cariño explained. Conceding that "historical injustices" were committed against the Ibalois when they were deprived of their ancestral lands during the creation of Baguio as a chartered city, Cariño said these "injustices" should be addressed by the local government and not by the NCIP. “Unfortunately, instead of being part of the solution, the NCIP has become part of the problem,” she had earlier lamented during the forum. However, Atty. Jose Molintas, area manager for Tanggapang Panligal ng Katutubong Pilipino-Cordillera Administrative Region (PANLIPI-CAR) said implementation of IPRA is necessary to uphold the rights of the indigenous people. "I am not here to say that we should amend the law. I think all we have to do is implement the law so that it will serve its purpose. The purpose of the law is to give justice to the people who have been deprived of their lands overtime," Molintas said. For her part former NCIP commissioner Zenaida Pawid said, "We accept that it [Casa Vallejo] is a heritage portion, but we also say that the whole of the city of Baguio is an ancestral land claim." GMA News sought the side of the Piraso family regarding their plans on Casa Vallejo but they declined to be interviewed. Meanwhile, concerned residents of Baguio City, who named their group Save Casa Vallejo Movement, also launched an online petition on the website change.org, asking the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) to declare the century-old hotel a "heritage site" or "important cultural property" to prevent its awarding to indigenous individuals. The petition received more than 2,500 signatures and has gone viral in social networking site Facebook. — Elizabeth Marcelo/DVM, GMA News