Ati tribe confronts claimant’s men in Boracay

ILOILO CITY—Ati tribe members in Boracay on Thursday resisted what they said was an attempt to stop them from occupying ancestral land that had been titled to them in the resort island.

Tribe members drove away four security guards and caretakers employed by property claimant Rudi Banico who entered a fenced area in the 2.1-hectare lot covered by a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) in Barangay Manoc-Manoc, Malay town, Boracay Island.

Banico’s men entered the area past 8 a.m. and set up a table and asked all those entering the area to register their names.

None of them appeared armed, said Lirio Cordova of the nongovernment organization Katarungan Filipinas, which has been helping the Atis.

The men left after 30 minutes when more tribe members and their supporters arrived in the area, according to Cordova.

Banico denied that his men were intimidating the Atis or trying to force them out.

“I only directed them to get the identities of those in the area as a security measure so we would know who will be held responsible if something happens,” he said in a phone interview.

The Ati tribe occupied the area on Tuesday even without a writ of possession, 15 months after the CADT was issued by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

Banico, one of the three claimants who are contesting the issuance of the CADT, said the Ati tribe and its supporters were “land-grabbers.”