NCIP to set up reservation for Aeta community in Boracay
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) will set up a reservation as a permanent residence for the Ati community on Boracay Island.
Lawyer Noel Felongco, NCIP Commissioner for Regions 6 and 7, Mindoro and Romblon, said stakeholders including members of the Ati community have agreed to push for the putting up of the reservation as a permanent solution to threats to the community of being eased out from their homes.
"Everyone is amenable for setting up the reservation on the island," Felongco said in a telephone interview on Thursday after a three-day consultation with stakeholders on the situation of the Ati community.
The consultation was attended by officials led by Presidential Assistant for Western Visayas Raul Banias, Undersecretary Virtus Gil of the Boracay Eminent Persons Group, representatives of the Department of Tourism, business owners and operators and the local government unit.
Representatives of the Ati community were joined by nuns of the Holy Rosary Parish Ati Mission (HRPAM) who have been living with community for years.
Felongco said the stakeholders affirmed the existence of the Ati community as the earliest settlers on the 1,032-hectare island resort and recognized their right to be given a place to stay on the island.
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.
Around 45 Ati families or around 200 persons have been living in a one-hectare lot in Sitio Bulabog in Barangay Balabag, one of the three villages of the island-resort.
But they have repeatedly faced threats of eviction from the community which is situated in adjoining lots separately owned by the families of Aklan Rep. Florencio Miraflores and Aniceto Yap.
The community had received several promises for a permanent relocation site including from former president Joseph Estrada and President Macapagal-Arroyo but none of these have materialized.
Felongco said they conducted a site inspection of the proposed relocation site which was proposed by members of the Ati community themselves. The lot is located on an area classified as forest land.
He said the NCIP will ask the President to proclaim the area as a reservation for the Atis.
"The Commission will delineate and title the land in the name of the Ati community after a presidential proclamation is issued," said Felongco.
He said the Atis are opposing the proposal to have them resettled to the mainland in Malay town where there is also a community of Atis residing.
"We will die where we were born like our ancestors," the members of the Ati community told the NCIP during the dialogue, according to Felongco.
The House committee on national cultural communities will hold an inquiry on the island next month to investigate the alleged dispossession of the Ati of their lands. The inquiry is a result of a resolution filed by Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, Gabriela Representatives Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan and Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano.