Resort owners oppose bill declaring portions Boracay as public domain
A group of resort and landowners on Boracay Island are gearing for protest actions against a bill pending in Congress declaring parcels of the island as public domain and open for disposition.
The property owners have launched a signature campaign and will hold a protest rally on the island on Friday against House Bill 1109 (Declaring Certain Parcels of the Public Domain Within Boracay Island, Malay, Aklan as Agricultural Land Open to Disposition).
The bill, authored by Aklan Rep, Florencio Miraflores, was passed by the House on April 29, 2008 and transmitted to the Senate. It aims to declare 626.59 hectares of the 1,032-hectare island as public domain.
In a manifesto, the resort owners said HB 1109 is "unconstitutional because it deprives private owners of the land of their vested right."
Resort owner Orlando Sacay said in a telephone interview that the bill would open their properties to acquisition by other investors and subject to disposition under provisions of the Commonwealth Act No. 141 or the Public Land Act of 1936 which prescribes public bidding to acquire lots declared as public domain.
"We, together with the government have invited private residents and investors both local and foreign to develop tourism on the island only for the government to confiscate our properties that we have acquired in good faith," the property owners said in their manifesto.
They said they could lose their properties that they have invested with millions of pesos if the bill is passed.
The protesting landowners also said that stakeholders were not consulted before the bill was passed.
Property owner Lara Salaver said they have gathered around 2,000 signatures from resort owners, residents and other stakeholders in support of their manifesto. They will also hold a rally at the public plaza of Barangay Balabag on Friday to dramatize their opposition to the proposed legislation.
But Miraflores, whose family also owns parcels on land on the island-resort, said the fears of the property owners are misplaced.
"The bill is not confiscatory. It actually protects the rights of property owners," Miraflores said in telephone interview.
He pointed a provision in the bill that allows occupants of land on the island to be issued free patent if they have been continuously occupying their lots of at least 30 years. The patent is limited to a maximum of 12 hectares per applicant.
The 30-year period would also include the occupancy of previous occupants of the property being applied for patent.
He said this would cover most properties because most of the lots on the island have been occupied since before World War II.
But he said a portion of lots on the island will be declared as protected areas and will not be declared as alienable and disposable including those reserved for easements, wetlands and forest lands.
"This is part of our efforts to regulate over development on the island. We have to sacrifice," said Miraflores.
Private ownership of lots on the island is technically illegal under Proclamation 1801 issued by the late President Ferdinand Marcos on Nov. 10, 1978.
The 1978 proclamation declared Boracay and other islands and coves as tourist and marine zones and were categorized as public lands.
Most of the business owners and residents have been occupying other lots for around 30 years through tax declarations.
Land occupants have been clamoring for their properties to be titled.
The President on May 22, 2006 issued Proclamation 1064 classifying 628.96 hectares or 60.94 percent of the 1,032-hectare island as alienable and disposable on the premise that the whole of Boracay is government property.
But property owners also opposed this proclamation because they claimed they would be in effect bidding for their own properties.
A group of property owners are also pursuing a pending case in the Supreme Court on a lower court ruling that recognized the right of land claimants to have their lots titled.