Group welcomes congressional probe on Boracay aborigines
The Church mission helping the Ati families on Boracay Island has welcomed a congressional investigation on the alleged displacement of Ati families from their community.
It also called for the fulfillment of a promise for a permanent relocation site for the Atis on the island made by President Macapagal Arroyo three years ago.
"We welcome the filing of the resolution so the claim of Atis for ancestral domain will be heard and addressed," said Sr. Victoria Ustan, head of the Holy Rosary Parish Ati Mission (HRPAM).
The church mission has been living with Ati community for years in Sitio Bolabog in Barangay Balabag, one of three villages of the island-resort.
Party-list congressmen have filed House Resolution 829, which directs the House committee on national cultural communities to investigate the alleged dispossession of the Ati of their lands in Boracay. The resolution was filed by Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, Gabriela Representatives Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan and Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano.
Ustan said the Ati families remain at risk of being driven away from their homes as development projects continue in the already congested island-resort.
The Atis and church workers have earlier complained that they have no pathway to their homes due to the construction of resorts and hotels near their village.
Around 39 families or 200 family members have been staying at a one-hectare land at the northern end of the island. The lots are properties of Yap, brother of provincial member Jose Yap, and the family of Aklan Rep. Florencio Miraflores.
The Atis have a pending application for the issuance of a CADT claiming they are the first inhabitants of the 1,032-hectare island-resort filed on Feb. 23, 2000.
Anthropologists have backed up claims that the Atis were the earliest settlers on the island but were displaced and driven away especially starting in the 1970s when the natural beauty of the island became known and attracted tourists.
A permanent injunction by National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) regional hearing officer Sulpicio Gamosa Jr. was issued on April 28, 2006, against of tax declarations claiming ownership of the lands the Atis occupy.
The order barred the relocation or eviction of the Atis their consent until the their petitions for CADT are resolved.
The NCIP has failed to resolve the petitions after eight years.
The President in 2005 promised the Ati leaders that they will not be evicted on the island but will be relocated to one-hectare lot within the 80-hectare Eco-Tourism Village on the island but the transfer has not been implemented.
Ustan said they later found out that the lot will be donated to the Atis on the condition that they will waive their rights to ancestral domain.
"They want a permanent place to stay but they will not agree to that condition," said Ustan in an interview on Wednesday.
Ustan said the Atis are also wary to transfer to the relocation site because its near tourists.
"They do not want to be showcased. They want to settle in a place where they can live quietly and not to be disturbed and driven away anymore," said Ustan.
Ustan said they are also worried that a 30-meter wide circumferential road project could displace Ati families.
The Atis are eyeing an area near the beach on the opposite side of the the white beach where hotels and resorts are concentrated.
Ustan said in this area, the fishing boats of Atis will also be protected because there were instances that these were ran over by speed boats and bigger boats.