DON CARLOS, Bukidnon — Many people were delighted by the soon-to-be-operational airport in Bukidnon province. But this caused the displacement of Indigenous peoples (IP).
Around 100 Lumad families belonging to the Kirintëkën-Ilantungën Mënuvu in Purok 11, Barangay Calaocalao, Don Carlos, Bukidnon, were affected. The tribe is a subgroup of the Erumanën në Mënuvu that has settled in Bukidnon and Cotabato provinces.
Bai Natividad Abi-abi, one of the affected Lumad, recalled that they were rushed by those managing the airport’s construction to be relocated by cutting down the trees in the surrounding area. There were housing units in the neighboring Barangay Maraymaray provided for them, but they were unfinished at the time.
“We were forced to relocate due to the dust from the airport’s construction,” she said in the vernacular. “We feel sorry for our laundry. Instead of the color white, they became the color brown.”
Bai Natividad Abi-abi shares her sentiments to the construction of the Bukidnon airport project during a discussion held at the community of Kirintëkën-Ilantungën Mënuvu in Barangay New Visayas, Don Carlos, Bukidnon, on September 4, 2026. Photo by Michael Tolang.
The more than P3-billion (US$ 47.7 million) Bukidnon Airport Development Project in Barangay Maraymaray, Don Carlos, is a major infrastructure project in Northern Mindanao. This serves as the second airport in the region after the Laguindingan International Airport—managed by the private firm Aboitiz InfraCapital Incorporated—in Misamis Oriental province.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), an attached agency of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), is the project’s lead implementing government agency.
Started in 2018, the Marcos Jr. administration is eyeing the 149-hectare airport to be operational next year. It reportedly prepared an additional P300-million (US$ 4.7 million) allocation from the 2027 proposed national budget.
There were also 50 Indigenous families in the adjacent Barangay San Nicolas that were reportedly relocated because of the project.
Under IP territory
Datu Reynante Sawit was among the leaders who filed the unified ancestral domain title of Kirintëkën-Ilantungën Mënuvu, covering some areas in the towns of Don Carlos, Pangantucan, Kalilangan, and Kadingilan in Bukidnon.
He said that a huge portion of land covered by the airport project is within the Indigenous territory, of which 49 hectares are under the existing 23,200-hectare certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) of the tribe. Meanwhile, the remaining area was being claimed by the Tigbabao-Dokit clan which also belongs to the same tribe.
The Bukidnon Airport Development Project in Barangay Maraymaray, Don Carlos, Bukidnon. Photo by Michael Tolang
The said CADT was supposed to be covering more than 40,000 hectares, but there were 19,000 hectares of land that were not included in the approved map released by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). The excluded areas are the barangays New Visayas, Bocboc, Kalubihon, a portion of Cabadiangan, and San Francisco in Don Carlos, and a portion of the barangays Salvacion and Baroy in Kadingilan town.
Because of the exclusion, 195 hectares of land in Sëzukadang (the native name of Barangay New Visayas) were placed under a certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) in 2011. The agrarian reform beneficiaries then leased it to a banana production company.
Read:How banana plantation puts Bukidnon Lumad into turmoil
The NCIP, through a certification issued in May 2023, however, affirmed that the excluded areas were part of the tribe’s ancestral domain title. The Lumad community is now pressing the agency to rectify the map.
‘Fraudulent’ FPIC
Sawit alleged that the process of obtaining free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of the affected IP community for the airport project was fraudulent.
“They asked permission from two individuals (from other tribal groups) only. That was what happened,” he said in the vernacular. “When the FPIC was conducted, the entire community was not informed.”
Datu Reynante Sawit shares his knowledge as to why the airport was pushed through during a discussion held at the Lumad community in Barangay Maraymaray, Don Carlos, Bukidnon, on September 5, 2026. Photo by Michael Tolang
The Gëmpà të Këlindaan në Kamal të Erumanën në Mënuvu, the Indigenous political structure (IPS) of the Mënuvu tribe in Southern Bukidnon, led by the late Datu Winefredo Tigbabao Sumael who served as the Tigbabao clan representative, wrote to Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, who hails in the same province, in June 2018, endorsing an activity design for the conduct of the FPIC process prior to the project construction.
A couple of months later, several Lumad leaders wrote to then Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, asking him to push the conduct of FPIC considering the number of families that would be affected by the project.
The IPS even made a draft agreement in October of the same year, enumerating the proposals it wanted if the FPIC was pushed through. Among the proposals included naming the airport as Mërëmarëy, which means “beautiful” in the Mënuvu dialect, and the allocation of two hectares as a showcase area for the concerned Lumad community.
The Lumad also wanted to be involved in the airport management, employment, and business activity, as well as to guarantee the proper allocation of their royalty share from the airport’s general income and total construction cost. They also wanted to ensure the proper relocation of the affected families.
In February 2023, the Kevuwazan te Mënuvu ne Tereguney te Meremarey (KMTM), the Indigenous peoples organization of the Tigbabao-Dokit clan in Barangay Maraymaray, issued a resolution urging the government to halt the airport construction due to the alleged continuing absence of a proper FPIC.
Bulatlat emailed CAAP and NCIP on September 15 for comments. There was no response from NCIP, but CAAP’s operations center responded on the same day, forwarding the email to its Media Relations Office. It has not yet responded as of this writing.
Lumad killings
Sumael and Lumad leader Datu Raffy Saway Alim were on their way for a tribal elders meeting when they were gunned down by a raiding-in-tandem in Purok 2, Barangay Old Nongnongan, Don Carlos, in December 2020.
Prior to their killings, Alim’s clan also lodged a complaint before the Don Carlos Municipal Police Station regarding a land dispute.
The IPS of the Mënuvu tribe in Southern Bukidnon also wrote to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in January 2021, complaining about the abuse of authority allegedly committed by several barangay officials, accusing them of intimidating the Lumad.
In May 2023, the shanty of the Lumad in Purok 8, Barangay Embayao, in the same municipality, on the other hand, was reportedly shot several times by armed men, resulting in the death of six individuals, including the Lumad and two alleged perpetrators.
Authorities were of the belief that the motive of the incident was a land dispute, considering that the concerned Lumad community would be occupying more than 23,000 hectares of land under the Kirintëkën-Ilantungën Mënuvu Ancestral Domain.
Datu Roldan Babelon, IPS Mënuvu Southern Bukidnon coordinator, said that there was no certificate of precondition (CP) issued for the airport project, as the coordination of CAAP and NCIP was allegedly discontinued due to the Lumad killings in Barangay Embayao.
Datu Roldan Babelon shares his knowledge about the issues surrounding the Bukidnon airport project during a discussion held at the Lumad community in Barangay Maraymaray, Don Carlos, Bukidnon, on September 5, 2026. Photo by Michael Tolang
CP is issued by NCIP certifying that a project does not overlap with any ancestral domain by Indigenous communities. If so, undergoing the FPIC process is required.
Unlivable
Affected Lumad families have been enduring their dire situation in the relocation site. As of this writing, there were no water and electricity connections. A woman resident, meanwhile, shared that she encountered an accident because the housing units were built in uneven land.
Housing units located in Barangay Maraymaray, Don Carlos, Bukidnon, awarded to affected Indigenous families were built in uneven land. Photo by Franck Dick Rosete/Bulatlat
Moreover, there is no space for them to do farming.
Datu Nicanor Tahuyan, the Indigenous peoples mandatory representative (IPMR) of Don Carlos, said that the Lumad were not compensated for their plants and crops being uprooted. “According to them, there was no compensation because of the provision of housing units.”
Tahuyan claimed that out of the more than 100 families affected in Purok 11, Barangay Calaocalao, there were around 30 families—including a few non-Lumad households—that have not yet been given relocation. Many of them have been staying with their relatives, he added.
Datu Nicanor Tahuyan shares his knowledge about the issues surrounding the Bukidnon airport project during a discussion held at the Lumad community in Barangay Maraymaray, Don Carlos, Bukidnon, on September 5, 2026. Photo by Franck Dick Rosete/Bulatlat
The family of Jona Dasig, who is a Lumad, has remained in Barangay Calaocalao. She said that they were not included in the list of beneficiaries of permanent shelters. “If our house were to be bulldozed, we would just go anywhere,” she said in the vernacular, adding that they have no place to go.
She said, however, that they were not yet forced to leave the area.
A total of 126 housing units were reportedly turned over from 2021 to 2025 for those affected by infrastructure projects, including the Bukidnon airport.
Some of the housing units located in Barangay Maraymaray, Don Carlos, Bukidnon, awarded to Indigenous families affected by the Bukidnon airport project. Photo by Franck Dick Rosete/Bulatlat
What the Indigenous community wants now is to have the proper FPIC process with the project proponent before the airport becomes operational not just for the benefits, but to recognize and respect their rights. (DAA)
Disclosure: The Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center provided transportation for the media going to the Lumad community. The LRC has no involvement in Bulatlat’s editorial processes.
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