Tax declarations and Conflict Settlement

Western land law has failed in Benguet. As the tax-declaration system reveals, the government has reverted to a system of state ownership. In most parts of Benguet, private parties acquire only use-rights through the payment of a fee—a "tax" on property that is not "owned."

This system is replete with contradictions. Municipal governments, hungry for revenue, accept most declarations offered, even

where claims overlap. And at the municipal level it is meaningless that a given parcel may lie within the Forest Preserve, or be designated for watershed protection. This "blindness" does help protect indigenous land rights, but only in a backhanded manner. Yet tax collection and land allocation proceed surprisingly smoothly, as most individuals respect the declarations of others. Controversies arise most commonly over speculative holdings. Neighboring farmers may slowly expand their own gardens into such idle properties, and then claim "ownership" through occupancy.

Since three property legitimation systems (customary agreements, tax declarations, and official titles) intermesh in Buguias, any one couple may hold a staggeringly complicated estate. They may claim different kinds of rights to several dozen parcels. Some of their land may be inherited titled property, the title to which may be held under their own names, in trust by a sibling or a cousin, by a "land pirate" seeking to expel them, or by a bank. In addition, they may have tax declarations located in sectors not classified as Alienable and Disposable. Some of their holdings may be mortgaged by salda, while they may hold the plots of others through the same arrangement. Similarly, they may let out some land to another for a share, while at the same time they may themselves sharecrop another's parcel. Still another lot may have passed unofficially from them to a less prosperous sibling with no expectations of return.

It is thus hardly surprising that land disputes consume so much time and effort. But despite all complexity and contradiction, most conflicts are resolved in the traditional tong tongan forum. The tong tongan participants are entrusted to make peace, and if both disputants are Buguias residents this invariably occurs. The key is compromise, which the elders facilitate by the use of a series of flexible precepts. In land debates the primary considerations are length of occupation, actual land use, and the inheritance wishes of the parcel's previous holders. Elders may also weigh relative wealth, slightly favoring the less prosperous party. Disputed plots are usually divided, and if this is impossible the household receiving the land may be required to give its rival a cash payment. Neither party loses completely. The final agreement is always verbal, and although this leaves an opening for future conflict, it also dis-

penses with any suggestion of legalism, signifying instead that the settlement was agreed upon mutually.