Ancestral Land to be redistributed to Boracay Island Natives
The native Ati community in Boracay Island will finally be able to lay claim on their ancestral land after years of waiting, as the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) announced that the land will be distributed back to them last Monday. 3.2 hectares of land at Barangay Manoc-manoc in Malay town, where the famous resort is located, will be distributed to the Ati tribe this November 8.
DAR Secretary John Castriciones said in an interview that the Ati “were able to verify their claim that they were the first settlers of the land and because of that we underwent some sort of a process and we were able to identify them as the recipients of this land.”
He explains that four certificates of land ownership awards (CLOA) will be given to 44 Ati families because they prefer collective ownership over the land.
Castriciones hopes that President Rodrigo Duterte, who previously expressed intent, will be able to join the awarding ceremony of the CLOA. “I will go to Boracay but I will go to distribute the lands given to the Atis. I’m not into sumptuous celebration but I will go to Boracay to personally distribute the land reform program certificates to the Lumads there, the natives,” said Duterte, before Boracay’s reopening last month.
A ballpark figure of the financial worth of the 3.2-hectare land to be distributed to the Ati was not released by the DAR; however, they emphasized that the beneficiaries are prohibited to sell, lease, or alienate the land within a 10-year period, under RA 6657, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, and RA 9700, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms. Doing so would forfeit the award of land ownership, which will prompt the DAR to redistribute these lands to farmers who are really willing to till the land.
Castriciones explains that the DAR is also conducting agricultural training for their beneficiaries, as a complement to the distribution of land. He believes that the Ati tribe, once they learn and improve their land cultivation, can be the primary suppliers of vegetables and other crops for the many hotels and restaurants in the island destination.
Castriciones adds that aside from these 3.2. hectares, a total of 14 more hectares of agricultural land are in the pipeline to be distributed. The DAR explains that 628 hectares of Boracay Island’s total land area of 1,028 hectares is agricultural.
In 2013, disputes among the multiple claimants of the land in the island resort, which have been going on for years, led to the killing of the Ati tribe’s spokesperson.
via GMA News Online // Dona Magsino
