President ‘correct’: Boracay has 16 hectares for land reform

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) can “immediately” declare about 15.5 hectares of land in Boracay under land reform, affirming President Rodrigo Duterte’s intention of putting the island under the government’s agrarian programs.

Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones said in a press conference on Monday that the DAR’s land reform estimate was equivalent to about 1.5 percent of the 1,006-ha island, without any legal issues.

DAR officials said the President was “correct” in declaring Boracay could be subjected to agrarian reform, despite critics jeering the department’s earlier announcement that land reform might not be possible on the island because it only had 4 ha of arable land. —Melvin Gascon