Land Availability in Yemeri and Laguna for Youths
As the boundary dispute rages on between Yemeri Grove and Laguna, the future hangs in the balance for youths on both sides who are hoping to own a parcel of land one day. Last week, we told you about the Yemeri Grove youths who publicly stated their fear of not having any lands available in the future to develop. Reporters posed that concern to Monica Coc. Here is what she told us.
Monica Coc- Magnusson
Monica Coc- Magnusson, 2nd Alcalde, Laguna Village
“One of the reasons that was a catalyst in the Maya people brining the initial Maya land rights claim was because of land tenure insecurity. You guys will understand that at the time when the Malaysians came the government was saying that a lot of these lands were terra nullius which means nobody is using them, nobody wants them. What had happened was people were trying to get title to their lands to secure land tenure. I being one of those at the time. I do have an old lease on this land which is an acknowledgement from the government that these are also Laguna lands. And, it is decades old, it is not a recent lease. That area has been surveyed and when you walked back there you saw pegs. Those are formal survey pecks, since the nineties.”
Reporter
“It is a valid concern that their children will grow up and have no land because it falls under communal land and that practically the Mayas are claiming almost all of Toledo.”
Monica Coc
“The reason we went to court was that we wanted lands for our children. Our populations are growing, our children are growing, and they also need land. We went to court; the court affirmed that we own these lands and these are our lands. What is there to stop any other community from doing that?”
