Molbog IPs Mark 100 Nights of Land Rights Protest

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By Juliane Judilla

For 100 consecutive nights, the Molbog Indigenous community has maintained a coastal encampment in Sitio Marihangin, Bugsuk Island, Palawan, in a unified show of resistance against what they describe as an unlawful and forceful seizure of their ancestral land.

The dispute centers on the proposed 5,500-hectare eco-luxury resort by Bricktree Properties, a subsidiary of San Miguel Corp.

Tensions escalated on April 4, 2025, when 80 armed personnel from JMV Security Services were deployed to the island, joining an initial group of 16 guards.

Residents report increased surveillance, intimidation and harassment amid their ongoing efforts to assert ancestral domain claims.

Documents confirm that the security personnel are contracted by JMV Security Services and are “providing security services for Alpha Law Partners’ project.”

The firm is represented by Cesar Ortega, a former director of the Ancestral Domain Office and ex-officer-in-charge of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples—the very agency mandated to protect Indigenous communities.

An Environmental Impact Summary from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources states that the “Bugsuk Island Resort” is slated for completion by 2038.

San Miguel Corp. listed the project as a principal property asset in its 2023 Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

For the Molbog, Palaw’an and Cagayanin communities, the development is not a sign of progress but a threat of renewed displacement.

They recall being forcibly evicted from over 10,800 hectares of ancestral land beginning in 1974 to make way for a hybrid coconut plantation linked to the late Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr.

More than 50 years later, they say the same land is under threat again—this time in the name of eco-tourism.

In response, the Sambilog-Balik Bugsuk Movement has called on the government to reverse the exclusion of the island from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms and restore full land coverage to the affected areas.

The group also urged the NCIP to expedite the community’s long-delayed Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title application.

“We will not leave. We will not yield. We will defend Marihangin until the very end,” the movement declared in a recent post.

Community leaders have appealed to the Marcos Jr. administration to intervene and have requested that the Commission on Human Rights investigate alleged abuses on the island.

They also demand that the NCIP fulfill its mandate to protect Indigenous peoples from forced displacement and to recognize ancestral land rights in a timely, just and transparent manner.

Despite the growing pressure and presence of armed guards, the Molbog community continues to stand its ground—not only as resistance, but as an assertion of sovereignty, dignity and survival.