By Helen Flores
Publication Date: [Tuesday, September 26, 2006]
http://www.philstar.com/philstar/show_content.asp?article=276970
Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes said yesterday that resort owners on Boracay island have "technically illegally" acquired their property, since they bought their land prior to the issuance of Presidential Proclamation 1064.
"You cannot own a property until it is declared alienable and disposable, so it is impossible that they have ownership over that land," he told a regular media forum.
Reyes said any disposal of government land before the declaration of "a and d," or alienable and disposable, is illegal.
"Kaya po ‘yung nagbenta sa kanila, binenta sa kanila nang walang karapatan (So those people who sold the land to them, sold the property to them without having the right to do so)," he added.
PP 1064, which was issued in May, classified 60 percent of lots on the island as "forest and agricultural land."
Reports said that the proclamation will pave the way for the government to bid out prized Boracay land even if there are resorts and other business establishments built on them.
Reyes said the declaration of PP 1064 favors resort owners because they will have the right to acquire their land through a public bidding.
However, he also said resort owners have opposed this idea.
"Ang gusto nila ibigay sa kanila — either pre-patent, walang bidding — kasi daw pag nagbidding wala silang pera na pantapat (What they want is for the lots to be given to them — either by pre-patent or without bidding — they said that if there is a bidding process, they will not have the funds to match the bids)," Reyes said.
He also said that only the indigenous people on the island may avail of the land.
He also said that resort owners presented only tax declarations as evidence of occupation, not land titles.
It was earlier reported that former environment secretary and now presidential chief of staff Mike Defensor will get no votes in Boracay island and the entire province of Aklan if he runs for senator in the May 2007 elections due to the government’s stand on the matter of land ownership in Boracay.
"He (Defensor) will get a zero vote from the whole island of Boracay and we will make sure that he gets nothing from the whole of Aklan province as well," Boracay Foundation Inc. chairman and businessman Orlando Sacay said.
Boracay residents and resort owners believe Defensor was the brains and the force behind PP 1064.
Defensor ranked 18th in the June 24 to July 8 Pulse Asia survey for senatorial hopefuls. If the midterm elections push through next year, only 12 senators will be elected to serve for a fixed six-year term.
It was during Defensor’s tenure as environment secretary in 2005 that problems of Boracay residents began. He said their land can be titled, but that the lots should first be auctioned off to potential investors.
On May 22, when Defensor was no longer DENR chief, Mrs. Arroyo signed PP 1064, declaring 628 hectares of the island as forest and agricultural land despite the absence of mangroves and farmland.
Sacay, along with other resort owners and residents, complained that declaring their lots alienable and disposable is unfair. They argued they have "prior vested rights" having developed and improved the island for some 30 years.
Defensor hit back at the group of resort owners and residents criticizing him for the reclassifying of Boracay into "alienable and disposable" and "forest and agricultural land" and justified the issuance of Proclamation No. 1064 by saying it was the only way to give the island’s resort owners and residents, including future investors, an opportunity to own land there.
Land classified as alienable and disposable will be disposed of either through direct selling or public auction — even if there are existing resorts and other business establishments on them.
Defensor said the protesters, particularly Sacay, were being too personal and emotional in trying to protect their structures, which are now classified as standing on government land.
He said it was unreasonable for the resort owners and residents occupying more than 1,000 square meters of land in Boracay to ask the government to just allow them to buy these lots without a public bidding as stated in the Public Land Act.
"That is the only law that we have now on alienable and disposable lands. If you have occupied the land for more than 30 years already, you have the option to buy but if it is 1,000 square meters or more, it should undergo a bidding," Defensor said.
Defensor said the resort owners and residents won before the regional trial court and the Court of Appeals in their petitions seeking land titles, but only "in accordance with the laws, rules and regulations."
"The government owns the land," he said. "The proclamation opens the avenue and opens the opportunity for them to apply for a title. Why would they get mad at me now?"
Defensor said that if the resort owners and residents are afraid to bid for their land, they could also put a value on their structures to discourage others from competing with them: "It will be difficult to bid (out) the structures, so maybe they will get to keep the area they occupy."
He also said that only Congress can pass a law that would allow the Boracay resort owners and residents to own the land in the area by "virtue of time," though he added that "there is nothing like that, except for indigenous peoples."
Defensor said local and foreign investors would want titles for their bank loans and joint ventures to expand operations.
"If they do not want to bid to own the land, it’s okay despite the proclamation," he added. "They can stay there, but without a title. What is their problem with that?"
"Those who would want to shortcut the process, they should not stop those who want to go through a bidding and have a title," Defensor said.
He also urged Sacay to be more circumspect in his pronouncements: "I hope Mr. Sacay will be more honest in what’s happening. He should reveal his true personal situation." — With Aurea Calica
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