Business as usual in Boracay despite land disputes—DOT
It is business as usual in Boracay despite the tension in some parts of the island stemming from land disputes.
"The island is big enough for everyone. It's business as usual in 99% of the island," said Department of Tourism regional director for Western Visayas Edwin Trompeta yesterday.
Last week, violence erupted when the sheriff of a Kalibo regional trial court, accompanied by about a hundred policemen, implemented a demolition order involving a disputed lot. Police commandoes fired warning shots and lobbed tear gas canisters at persons barricading the property. Several persons were wounded.
At about the same time also, security guards hired by a land owner took over Boracay Sand Castles Resorts from its lessee, Australian Greg Hutchison.
The Boracay police deployed policemen to maintain peace and order. The resort remains closed.
In June, one person died when security guards took possession of a disputed property.
Trompeta brushed the incidents aside, saying it will not affect the tourism industry.
"These are isolated cases. This is no problem as far as the tourism industry is concerned. It does not and will not affect the movement, safety, and convenience of the tourists," he stressed, saying that the land disputes involved only the contracting parties, and do not involve nor target the tourists themselves.
The incidents, Trompeta added, are not so serious as to cause a decline in the number of tourist they expect for the last quarter of 2008. "If ever there is a decline, it would be because of the credit crisis," he said.
He admitted though that the twin incidents generated a perception of lawlessness in the island.
"There is an image-problem, that there is some kind of lawlessness in the island, which is not actually accurate. There is no systematic breakdown of peace and order," Trompeta pointed out.
The land disputes only show that the stakes involved are high.
"The stakes are high because of the economic value and the potential for economic gain," he said. The value of land in the world-famous tourist island in Aklan that "a person would die for land the size of a handkerchief."