MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposed land reform for Boracay will bring social justice to its original inhabitants, an official overseeing its cleanup said recently.
Boracay locals don’t benefit much from tourism earnings, which run up to $800 million in gross receipts annually, said Interior assistant secretary Epimaco Densing.
“Despite the fact that it has been generating that much there’s still a lot of poor people in Boracay. In other words, the economy never benefited the Boracaynons,” Densing told ANC.
It’s up to local beneficiaries if they would want to sell their land, Densing said.
“Give it to them, give them the title, if they’re allowed to sell it in 10 to 30 years then they get the money. Then at least they can hold P500,000 into a million. That’s what the President is saying – social justice and equity,” he explained.
Densing said 25 hectares could be up for land reform and distribution while 300 hectares of forest land would not be touched.
Duterte earlier ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform to redistribute parcels of land to original inhabitants of the island. (ABS-CBN News)
