By Christina Mendez
Publication Date: [Saturday, September 30, 2006]
http://www.philstar.com/philstar/show_content.asp?article=277659
The Senate urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to withhold the implementation of Presidential Proclamation 1064 which seeks to classify more than half of the world-famous Boracay island resort in Aklan into a public agricultural land open for public bidding.
Sen. Franklin Drilon, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, urged the DENR not to proceed pending the Supreme Court ruling on the petition filed by resort owners and landowners seeking the recall of PP 1064.
Drilon sought the commitment of Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes during the recent hearing of the Senate finance committee on the DENR budget earlier this week.
Reyes informed Drilon that the DENR has "not moved an inch closer to titling or bidding out" Boracay.
Reyes, however, warned they have the authority to demolish establishments in Boracay violating environmental laws.
Drilon replied that he disagreed with the DENR pronouncement calling on resort owners to bid for their own land under PP 1064.
"It is not fair that suddenly, these will be put to public bidding and cronies of this administration could dip their hands into these properties," Drilon said.
He added that "it would appear that the issuance of Proclamation 1064 is this administration’s last ditch effort to force their will on 629 hectares of Boracay lands, after exhausting legal remedies, which have resulted in unfavorable decisions against them."
Drilon stressed the issuance of PP 1064 could prejudice the resort owners and residents of Boracay who have worked to make the island resort into a world class tourist destination.
"At the very least, equity is in favor of these land owners in Boracay because they invested hundreds of millions of pesos to improve the property and make it a tourist attraction that it is now today," he said.
Drilon noted the resort owners and stake holders were forced to elevate their case before the Supreme Court after the government insisted on implementing PP 1064.
The petitioners initially won their case before the Kalibo regional trial court on July 19, 1999.
The government appealed the case before the Court of Appeals (CA) where the case was dismissed on Dec. 9, 2004 in favor of the resort owners and stake holders.
The CA said the resort owners and stake holders "cannot just be prejudiced by a declaration that the lands they have occupied since time immemorial is part of forest reserve."
The proclamation enables the government, through the DENR, "to dispose and alienate the said land classified as agricultural... at public bidding at their market value pursuant to law, with the occupant-claimant owner, being given only the preference to buy by matching the highest bid at the auction sale."
Drilon said PP 1064 would practically eject the resort owners and businessmen who have made big investments in Boracay.
Businessman Orlando Sacay, chairman of the Boracay Foundation Inc., led resort owners in filing the petition before the high court seeking the recall of PP 1064 on fears that they would be ejected out of the island and lose their land holdings.
Malacañang said they have no intention of taking back PP 1064.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita earlier asserted PP 1064 would put things in order and even work to the advantage of residents and resort owners in Boracay.
Sacay and the other petitioners argued that the implementation of PP 1064 will also destroy the tourism industry in Boracay.
Sacay said they have poured in billions of pesos to make Boracay the prime tourist destination in Asia but the government classification would practically wipe out their investments and their vested rights.
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