Boracay stakeholders urge Congress to pass law protecting occupants
Resort and hotel owners on Boracay Island are urging Congress to pass a pending bill to protect existing land occupants after the Supreme Court ruled that the island is public land.
The land occupants said the ruling has alarmed business owners and investors of the world-famous island.
"We must find a win-win solution and we are asking Congress to remedy our situation by passing the bill," Loubelle Cann, president of the Boracay Foundation Inc. (BFI), said in a telephone interview on Sunday. BFI is a group of owners of hotels, restaurants and other businesses on the island-resort
Cann said the ruling has put on hold development plans.
She said the government should protect the interests of investors in Boracay which is expected to contribute P13 billion to the economy this year.
"There is a gloomy mood among us because we fear for our years of investments and hard work," said resort owner Nenette Graf in separate phone interview.
The Supreme Court on October 8 ruled that the island is public domain and upheld residential Proclamation 1064.
The proclamation, issued by President Macapagal-Arroyo on May 22, 2006, classified 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.
The proclamation also provides for a 15-meter buffer zone on each side of the center line of roads and trails, which are reserved for right of way and which shall form part of the area reserved for forest land protection purposes.
The High Court also ruled that land occupants have not acquired vested rights over their properties even if they have been occupying lots for decades and despite millions of pesos of investments.