PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is mulling to form a committee that will identify the "rightful" land owners of Boracay Island.
"Alam mo, iyang Boracay, sinasabi ko, 'Allow government to clean it. And after that, I will return Boracay to its rightful owners,'" the President said before his audience in Quezon City on Wednesday, July 4.
(You know, that Boracay, I am saying, "Allow government to clean it. And after that, I will return Boracay to its rightful owners.")
"Now, the problem is how to determine who owns what. 'Yan ang problema ngayon. So there has to be a committee to be fair to everybody. From the local government then from the origins of any title there," he added.
(Now, the problem is how to determine who owns what. That's the problem now. So there has to be a committee to be fair to everybody. From the local government then from the origins of any title there.)
Boracay, a top tourist destination, has been closed to tourists since April 26 to enable the government to rehabilitate the island and bring it back to its once pristine condition.
Duterte has repeatedly expressed his intent to place the entire island of Boracay under land reform to correct "inadequacies" that resulted in inequality among indigenous peoples residing on the world-famous island.
In 2006, then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Proclamation 1064, classifying 628.96 hectares on the island as agricultural land and the other 377.69 hectares as forest land.
Some 408.5113 hectares of 628.96 hectares of agricultural land in Boracay may be subject to Duterte's proposed land reform program since 220.4 hectares of which were exempted from land reform, the Department of Agrarian Reform earlier said.
On June 1, Malacañang announced that roughly 20 hectares in Boracay could be immediately distributed to some 80 potential beneficiaries from Aeta village in the island.
Duterte, who previously called Boracay a "cesspool," said the island cannot handle an "overload of humanity."
But he reiterated that he may still allow Congress to allot "half a kilometer or a kilometer wide" for commercial development.
"Because ang problema niyan, the island of Boracay --according to [former] President Arroyo at sa akin -- my stand is that Boracay has never been open to any commercial exploitation. Walang residential. It remains forestal and agriculture," he said.
(The problem there is the island of Boracay --according to [former] President Arroyo and to me -- my stand is that Boracay has never been open to any commercial exploitation. No residential. It remains forestal and agriculture.)
"If you want to cut a strip there and declare it commercial, inland from the --- well the water, low tide, high tide, paatras ka maybe half a kilometer or a kilometer wide. That's up to Congress to decide how much Boracay can handle. It cannot handle so much people," he added.
(If you want to cut a strip there and declare it commercial, inland from the --- well the water, low tide, high tide, cut a strip of maybe half a kilometer or a kilometer wide. That's up to Congress to decide how much Boracay can handle. It cannot handle so much people.) (VoxPop Philippines)
