Govt stops Boracay structures on Ati land

The government has barred three people from developing a beach-front property that is part of the Atis’ ancestral land on world-famous Boracay island.

In an order handed down on Wednesday, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) granted a petition brought by the Atis and permanently stopped Rudy Banico, Gregorio Sanson, and Lucas Gelito from infringing on the Atis’ ownership rights to the 2.1-hectare property in Barangay Manoc-manoc, Malay town.

The NCIP also ordered Banico, Sanson, and Gelito to stop from further building structures on the property, located on the southern end of the island-resort.

“That’s no longer theirs. They should not be constructing anything [there],” NCIP Chair Zenaida Brigida H. Pawid said in an interview Friday morning.

The NCIP also requested the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police to ensure the installation of the Atis, who moved into a portion of the property on April 17 despite development by the three claimants.

“They’ve been there since [Wednesday],” Pawid said, explaining why there was no need for a formal installation.

Pawid clarified that the NCIP issued an order to install the Atis on the property, not a writ of possession.

In January 2011, the NCIP awarded a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title to the Ati tribe, the first inhabitants of the island, who brought a petition in 2000 to be given legal possession of their ancestral land.