Asian Social Science; Vol. 13, No. 7; 2017 ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 38 Indigenous Peoples’ Struggle for Secure Land Tenure in the Philippines: Case Study of Higaonon Tribe in Opol, Mindanao Petr Drbohlav 1 & Jiri Hejkrlik 1 1 Department of Economics and Development, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic Correspondence: Jiri Hejkrlik, Department of Economics and Development, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 00 Prague 6 – Suchdol, Czech Republic. Tel: 420-2-2438-2508. E-mail: hejkrlik@ftz.czu.cz Received: March 24, 2017 Accepted: May 11, 2017 Online Published: June 23, 2017 doi:10.5539/ass.v13n7p38 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v13n7p38 Abstract Indigenous peoples worldwide struggle for control over land and natural resources against encroachment of state interests, external development and commercial pressures such as agribusiness, dams, logging and mining. Their battle to protect land and natural resources is at the same time the struggle to preserve indigenous culture and traditions often inextricably linked to the land itself. The Philippine Indigenous Peoples Rights Act recognizes the indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral lands and domains and offers a way of improving their land tenure security. The article employs case study design to illustrate the implementation gap between the rights of indigenous peoples in law and practice and the role different stakeholders play in securing indigenous peoples’ land tenure and dealing with palm oil agribusiness and mining industries’ interests in ancestral domains on the case of Higaonon tribe in Misamis Oriental province, Mindanao. The methodology for data collection was focus group discussions and key informant interviews with representatives of tribal leaders and members, non-government organizations and government bodies. Our results indicate that conflicting laws and mandates of various government bodies and lack of coordination between them, as well as lack of resources and political will to implement the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act are important factors behind slow issuance of ancestral domain titles. At the same time, we show that significant factor in the land tenure insecurity of indigenous peoples is disunity within the tribe and conflicting interests of its members and clans used by companies to further enhance their business interests. Keywords: land grabbing, indigenous peoples, ancestral domain, agribusiness, palm oil, mining 1. Introduction Indigenous people worldwide struggle for control over what they claim as their land and their natural resources. In the times of globalization, they encounter encroachment of state interests, external development and commercial pressures such as large-scale agribusiness, logging and mining into their traditional lands. This accelerates deforestation and exploitation of natural resources in what has remained from their ancestral domains after the colonial period during which indigenous peoples had lost vast amounts of their ancestral lands. Uprooting of indigenous peoples from their land denies them the right to life and identity; their battle to protect land and resources is implicitly the struggle to preserve indigenous culture and traditions often inextricably linked to the land itself. As shown by Göcke (2013), Perera (2009), Carino (2009) and many others, the loss of land has also led to social, political and economic marginalization; indigenous peoples have become disadvantaged by almost every standard compared to the dominant society - including income, education, housing, health, and life expectancy. Having developed from very different historical origins, modern legal systems and indigenous customary laws often contradict each other in their land tenure concepts (Molintas, 2004; Carino, 2012; Arquiza, 2005). Lands that governments claim as idle, marginal and uncultivated and therefore target for land concessions, investment or development are in reality often existing agricultural lands in ancestral domains where various customary land tenure arrangements are already in place (White et al., 2012; Borras & Franco, 2011; Schneider, 2011; Scoones et al., 2013; AFRIM, 2011). The legal concept of indigenous rights in international law represents recognition for indigenous peoples’