Heir asserts ‘absolute ownership’ of Friday’s Boracay resort beachfront part

TOURISTS continue to arrive in Boracay, with its 4 kilometers of white, powdery fine sand, resorts, hotels and restaurants.MARK ALVIC ESPLANA/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON.

The heir of one of Boracay’s first settler-families has asserted her claim on a 1,447 square meter beachfront part of the popular Friday’s Boracay Island Resort on the strength of a court-recognized tax declaration certificate proving what she called her “absolute ownership” of this property.

In a statement, Mila Yap-Sumndad said the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC)’s decision recognizing the tax declaration certificate covering this 1,447-sq. m. portion of Friday’s resort has “established her absolute ownership of this property as one of her deceased parents’ successors-in-interest who has been in continuous and exclusive possession of it for a long time or since time immemorial.”

“This tax document recognized by the Quezon City RTC has virtually rendered as spurious a different and undated tax declaration certificate not certified by the Aklan Provincial Assessor’s Office but supposedly covering the same land which was presented in court through a third-party claim,” said Yap-Sumndad.

In a Writ of Execution issued last Dec. 14, Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 95 Judge Edgar Belosillo has set a March 7 public auction of Yap-Sumndad’s properties as part of her compromise agreement with her creditor, Lonavla Properties Inc., to settle a loan worth P73.4 million.

Based on this Writ, Quezon City RTC sheriff Ruben Blanco Jr. issued last Feb. 3 a Notice of Auction in the city as well as a Notice of Levy to the Register of Deeds and Assessors Office in Kalibo, Aklan attaching these properties found to be owned by Yap-Sumndad preparatory to their public sale, proceeds from which will be used to settle her debt to Lonavla.

Assessment of Real Property or Tax Declaration (ARP/TD) No. 3676 covering this 1,447-sq. m. parcel within Friday’s resort in Barangay Balabag in Malay, Aklan is one of Yap-Sumndad’s two tax declaration certificates that RTC sheriff Blanco had identified and attached to clear the way to a public auction of both her properties that Judge Belosillo has set on March 7.

Issued by the Aklan Provincial Assessors Office last Dec. 9, 2009, ARP/TD No. 3676 states that Yap-Sumndad is the owner of Lot No. 617-pt that is classified as a “Commercial 1” lot covering 1,477 sq. m. in the barangay’s Sitio Pinaungon.

The other tax declaration certificate that Blanco had attached to the Notice posted at the Quezon City Hall is ARP/TD No. 3676 covering a 2,498-sq. m. property, also in Barangay Balabag.

Both tax declaration certificates were attached by sheriff Blanco to the Notice of Levy for the March 7 auction of Yap-Sumndad’s properties as approved by Judge Belosillo.

Boracay settlers only possess tax declaration certificates covering their respective properties because Boracay is one of several Philippine islands that then-President Marcos declared as Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA)-administered tourist zones and marine reserves, under Proclamation Order 1801 dated Nov. 10, 1978.

Then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also reclassified the reserved forest lands in Boracay in Proclamation Order 1064 dated May 22, 2006.

Yap-Sumndad was one of the claimants who eventually filed a petition for declaratory relief with the RTC in Kalibo, Aklan on the ground that the Marcos proclamation (P.O. 1801) infringed on their prior vested rights over their properties.

The Supreme Court affirmed in an Oct. 8, 2008 ruling that although the State-declared timber and mineral lands cannot be titled in view of these two presidential proclamations, their claimants with lawful possession would not be ousted from these properties and could take steps to preserve, protect or improve them. TVJ