ILOILO CITY – A bill declaring more than half of Boracay Island, the country’s premier tourist destination, as agricultural land and open for disposition has unsettled a group of resort and landowners who vowed to stage protest actions against the measure.

House Bill 1109, authored by Aklan Rep. Florencio Miraflores, aims to declare 626.59 hectares of the 1,032-hectare island as public domain. It was passed by the House of Representatives on April 29 and transmitted to the Senate.

In a manifesto, the resort owners denounced HB 1109 as “unconstitutional because it deprives private owners of the land of their vested right.”

The bill will open their properties to acquisition by other investors and subject to disposition under provisions of the Commonwealth Act No. 141 or the Public Land Act of 1936, Orlando Sacay, a resort owner, said in a phone interview. That law prescribes public bidding to acquire lots declared public domain.

But Miraflores, whose family also owns parcels on land in Boracay, said the fears of the property owners were misplaced. “The bill is not confiscatory. It actually protects the rights of property owners,” he told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

He cited a provision in the bill that would allow occupants to be issued free patents if they had been continuously staying on their lots for at least 30 years. The patent is limited to a maximum of 12 hectares per applicant.

The 30-year period would also include the previous occupancies of the property being applied for patent. This would cover most properties because most of the lots on the island have been occupied since before World War II, Miraflores said.

But he said a portion of lots on the island, including those reserved for easements, wetlands and forest lands, would be declared protected areas and not alienable and disposable. “This is part of our efforts to regulate the over-development on the island. We have to sacrifice,” he said.

Private ownership of lots in Boracay is technically illegal under Proclamation No. 1801 issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos on Nov. 10, 1978. The proclamation declared Boracay and other islands and coves as tourist and marine zones and categorized these as public lands.

Most of the business owners and residents have been occupying other lots for around 30 years and could present tax declarations. Land occupants have been clamoring for their properties to be titled.

“We, together with the government, have invited private residents and investors both local and foreign to develop tourism on the island only for the government to confiscate our properties that we have acquired in good faith,” the property owners said in their manifesto.
If HB 1109 is approved, they said they could lose their properties and millions of pesos in investments.

They said they were not consulted about the bill.

Lara Salaver, a lot occupant, said around 2,000 signatures of resort owners, residents and other stakeholders had been gathered in support of the manifesto. A rally has also been scheduled for Friday at the public plaza of Barangay Balabag.

On May 22, 2006, President Macapagal-Arroyo issued Proclamation 1064 classifying 628.96 hectares or 60.94 percent of Boracay as alienable and disposable.