Homeless Diver

The Highlites that the article seems to spend a lot of time explaining:

• Resort properties on beaches will be declared ‘agricultural’ areas to put control back in Gov’t hands
• Supposedly, this protects occupants so they can finally put their name on the property by means of application
• Most resorts do not OWN the land but instead are subleased thru 2 or 3 different levels of people
• Owners (tax mapped) will have to pay the government AGAIN for the property they had been paying for over the last 30 years
• Because everything will be open again, and this is the philippines…pretty much anyone with the most money will see their application for ownership approved.

So…If you just invested 2 million Pesos in your building and several years left on your lease contract….you can lose it all if a new person comes along and has more money to offer the Government for the newly for-sale property. You will lose, your contract will become void. The new owner will have a nice turn-key resort business package.

the article and link are below here:

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2008/August/01/businessnews2.htm

ILOILO CITY – More than a thousand residents and resort owners in Boracay Island are expected to join a protest rally on the island today to protest a bill categorizing areas on the island as public domain and open for disposition.

A press conference will be held around 2 p.m. after which resort owner Lara Salaver said, participants will converge at the public of Barangay Balabag, one of three villages of the world-famous resort, around 4 p.m. for the rally against House Bill 1109 (Declaring Certain Parcels of the Public Domain Within Boracay Island, Malay, Aklan as Agricultural Land Open to Disposition).

Salaver said speakers will explain the provisions of the bill and the reasons for their opposition.

The bill, authored by Aklan Rep, Florencio Miraflores, was passed by the House on April 29, 2008 and transmitted to the Senate. It aims to declare 626.59 hectares of the 1,006-hectare island as public domain. Another 337.68 ha will be categorized as forestland or protected zones.

Property owners and land occupants opposing the bill have criticized HB 1109 as unconstitutional and would deprive them of their “vested rights” over lots they have occupied for years.

They claimed that the bill would subject their properties open to acquisition by other investors. If the bill is passed, they also claimed that they could lose their properties that they have invested with millions of pesos.

In an earlier interview, Miraflores defended the bill saying this would actually safeguard the properties of the land occupants.

Private ownership of lots on the island is technically illegal under Proclamation 1801 issued by the late President Ferdinand Marcos on Nov. 10, 1978.

The 1978 proclamation declared Boracay and other islands and coves as tourist and marine zones and were categorized as public lands.

Most of the business owners and residents have been occupying other lots for around 30 years through tax declarations.

Miraflores had pointed out that the bill provides or the issuance of patents to occupants who have been continuously occupying their lots for the last 30 years. The patent is limited to a maximum of 12 hectares per applicant.

The 30-year period would also include the occupancy of previous occupants of the property being applied for patent.

The resort owners have brought their opposition to the Senate. On Wednesday, a group of resort owners held a dialog with senators and presented a manifesto with 2,400 signatories of stakeholders on the island opposing the bill.*NPB