Homeless Diver

UPDATE: these are two different stories I had thought were in the same area. The fire was a huge area of squatters that were filled with burka wearing women selling souvenirs at tons of stalls and had partially clothed kids running amok. Personally, I disliked walking thru there, it felt like taking a wrong turn in a bad neighborhood. They had tried kicking them out before but the wire was ripped down and they moved right back into the buildings.

One thing happened for sure—- there were gunshots fired, buildings on fire, lots of tear gas. A friend of mine was pulled out of the tear gas by police when they saw him as being a distinctly ‘old white guy’.

• http://beta.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=413436
  
• http://www.gmanews.tv/story/131761/Fire-violence-mar-demolition-operation-in-Boracay
• http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/11/06/08/fire-guts-20-boracay-homes-violent-police-demolition
• http://www.gmanews.tv/story/131908/Aussie-resort-owner-holed-up-in-disputed-Boracay-lot
• http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20081107-170698/Demolition-in-Boracay-turns-violent
• http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/gunmen-holding-us-australians/2008/11/07/1225561054249.html

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:

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