BORACAY ISLAND, Aklan—Aklan Rep. Florencio Miraflores will push through with his controversial Boracay bill amid strong objections to categorize more than half of the island-resort as public domain and open for disposition.

As he turned down calls of some lot occupants and resort owners here to recall House Bill No. 1109, the proposed measure split resort and property owners over their rights and the procedure to have their lots titled.

Miraflores said he was open to amendments to HB 1109 (Declaring Certain Parcels of the Public Domain Within Boracay Island, Malay, Aklan as Agricultural Land Open to Disposition). But he denied that the bill is “confiscatory” as claimed by oppositors.

“I will push through. But if they can offer me a better version of the bill, I will accept it,” Miraflores told the Inquirer at the sidelines of a dialogue with property and resort owners here on Saturday.

‘Misinformation’

The bill, co-authored by Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, categorizes 626 hectares of the 1,006-ha island as public domain. Another 337 ha will be categorized as forestland or protected zones while the remaining areas are buffer zones and easements. The bill was passed by the House on April 29 and has been transmitted to the Senate.

A group of resort owners and land occupants were claiming that they could lose the lot they have been occupying for years if the bill was passed.

But Miraflores said there could have been “misinformation” on the bill.

He said the bill actually “corrects” defects in Presidential Proclamation 1064, issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on May 22 that categorizes 628.96 ha or 60.94 percent of the island as alienable and disposable.

Miraflores said Proclamation 1064 is “confiscatory” because titles for areas declared as alienable and disposable could only be acquired through public auction as provided by Commonwealth Act No. 141 or the Public Land Act of 1936.

He said the bill would allow land occupants to have their lots titled through the issuance of free land patents if they have proof that they have been continuously occupying the land and paying tax declarations for 30 years. This would include duration of occupancy of previous owners.

“The present ownership of lots on the island is in limbo. We must have order,” said Miraflores.

He said some landowners will be affected because of the bill but he said sacrifices should be made for the good of the majority. He pointed out that a 1-ha property owned by his family would be affected because it is located on a slope, a protected area, in Sitio Bolabog in Barangay Balabag.

During the dialogue with members of the Boracay Foundation Inc., a group of resort and business owners on the island, Miraflores said changes in the bill could still be included in the bicameral committee hearings if Senate will pass a counterpart bill or adopt the House version.

He assured that if the bill was enacted, owners of properties located in areas categorized as forestland or protected areas would not be removed and all titles issued under the Torrens System respected.

But no further construction would be allowed in these protected areas to help preserve the already critical environmental situation of the island.

“There is no order now (on land ownership) in Boracay. Wetlands are being covered and no-build zones are being used. We do not want the remaining (trees) to disappear,” he said during the heated discussion.

Support

The issue has split land and resort owners here as another group has openly supported the bill.

“We are fully supporting the bill,” said Charles Uy, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Boracay.

Uy said the chamber, with around 50 members, unanimously endorses the bill because it corrects the defects of Proclamation No. 1064 and denied that it is “confiscatory.”

“If the bill becomes a law, it will be economically beneficial to us because lands will now be titled and its market value will surely rise,” Uy told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

If necessary, they would ask the Senate to approve the bill, Uy said.

“We must look at it with the greater good in mind,” he said.

But oppositors who held a protest rally here on Friday were not satisfied with Miraflores’ assurances.

Oppositors

Architect Lara Salaver, a resort owner, said the bill offers no guarantee that their properties would be protected when the bill is enacted. She said Miraflores should instead wait for the Supreme Court to rule on pending cases on land titling in Boracay.
The cases include the petition to nullify Proclamation 1064 for being unconstitutional and an appeal by the government on a lower court ruling recognizing the rights of land owners to have their lots titled through judicial confirmation.

Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Juan Miguel Zubiri are backing private property holders and hotel operators on Boracay Island in opposing moves to declare the world-famous white sand beach resort as part of public domain.

“Both local and foreign investors in Boracay have already devoted time, money and effort to own and start business in the island. It is very unfair that their properties will be confiscated because of the too late claim that the island is a public domain. We should not change the rules in the middle of the game,” said Revilla in a statement.

Unjustly profiting from the sweat of others would drive away investors from the country, Revilla warned.

Zubiri told the Inquirer that he would block proposals to declare more than 60 percent of the island as public domain because the investors on the island should be able to reap from their investments that made Boracay the country’s biggest tourist destination.

The declaration of public domain would affect Boracay’s biggest investor, the Shangri-La group, could send ripples to prospective investors eyeing to build luxury hotels on the island, he noted.