Paper short abstract:

With this research, I would like to highlight the continuing struggle of indigenous peoples over land tenure and the political settlements that shape arrangements for inclusive development.

Paper long abstract:

Land acquisition and land ownership are recurring sources of tension, violence and dispossession in contexts of settler colonialism. This study discusses the development challenge of General Santos City in the Philippines in dealing with land conflicts arising from land tenurial instruments for enterprise development, and competing land claims as a consequence of weak land governance systems. It provides a brief historical account of land politics that were drivers of colonial and postcolonial struggles of indigenous societies which still reverberate until now with the country’s countless land contestation issues across different regions, most prominently in the Mindanao region where the city is located. The research also examines the political settlements that are normally appended with land tenurial instruments and the social tensions that are characteristically formed around such arrangements, particularly over ancestral domains. It reveals that the contestations over land in General Santos generates various rent-seeking behaviors from ‘land title holders’ and that these dynamics are creating social tensions that bring into question what forms of urban governance or modifications can locate land beyond its economic value and move to arrangements that allow for greater social cohesion as a critical step to address inequities and exclusions. More importantly, the governance issues in the interoperability of different government agencies in addressing land conflicts over ancestral domains remain to be a serious institutional challenge, as policy implementers and street level bureaucrats require a policy environment that is predictable, stable and which allows for greater participation and organization in defining land tenure systems.