In Search of Common Grounds: Forging Land ... - ANGOC Site

20 IN SEARCH OF COMMON GROUNDCampaign for Agrarian Reform Network (AR Now!), as support group to the farmerssector. Funding support for the project was provided by the International Land Coalition(ILC), the Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE) and the Foundation for aSustainable Society, Inc. (FSSI).From December 2005 to January 2006 meetings were held among ANGOC and its partnersto decide which areas the project would cover and to agree on what the project shoulddeliver. ANGOC likewise met with concerned agencies to orient them on the initiative.The two areas that were chosen were the Don Carlos Estate in Bukidnon, Mindanao, andthe ancestral domains of the BuhidMangyans in Oriental Mindoro.Based on initial assessments by theproject partners of the situation inthe two areas, it was decided that theproject would try to create a venuewhere the conflicting sectors couldcome to understand the basis of theother group’s land claims andaspirations. Rather than aspiring totest proposed dispute settlementmechanisms, the project settled forthe more modest objective of drawingout lessons from the experience thatcould inform the task either ofstrengthening existing mechanismsor designing one from scratch.Ancestraldomains of theBuhid Mangyansin Bongabong,Oriental MindoroThe framework on the next pageshows the stages in the process thatwas undertaken:Don CarlosEstate,BukidnonTwo pilot sites of the Philippines’ Land Partnership