SLICE OF PARADISE Members of the Ati tribe put up a sign to stake their claim on a piece of ancestral property on the resort island of Boracay in Aklan province. —NESTOR P. BURGOS JR.
BORACAY ISLAND, Aklan — Even as members of the Ati tribe of Boracay, the earliest settlers on the island, have welcomed the government crackdown on environmental violators, they are also hoping that they will soon get justice for the 2013 murder of one of their leaders.
The tribe marked the fifth death anniversary of Dexter Condez by lighting candles at the spot where a lone gunman shot and killed him on Feb. 22, 2013, while he was on his way home to the Ati community in Barangay Manoc-Manoc.
Frustrated
“We have been frustrated with the repeated postponement of hearings and the schedules are too far apart,” Evangeline Tamboon, council member of Boracay Ati Tribal Organization, told the Inquirer.
Police believed the killing of Condez was linked to disputes over a 2.1-hectare beach front property that was awarded to the tribe by the government in 2011 through a certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) issued by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
Condez served as spokesperson for the tribe and was among the most vocal and visible in their fight for their ancestral land.
Daniel Celestino, a security guard of Crown Regency Boracay Resorts hotel chain, has been detained since March 2014 at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facility in the capital town of Kalibo for the killing of Condez.
Celestino had denied involvement in the killing.
Unavailable
The latest hearing in Kalibo Regional Trial Court had been scheduled early this month but it was postponed to July this year.
The delays, reports said, were due to unavailability of the presiding judge or the lawyer for the defense.
According to Tamboon, the tribe has no private lawyer to help in pursuing the case.
Displacement
The NCIP and anthropologists supported claims that the Ati were the earliest settlers on the island but they were displaced and driven away, especially starting in the 1970s when the island became popular and started attracting tourists.
Forty-five Ati families are occupying part of the CADT-covered area. The community has become an attraction for visitors who want to learn about the Ati culture.
But private claimants, who have paid tax declarations covering the property, have continued questioning the CADT claiming ownership of the land.