ON MAY 30 President Rodrigo R. Duterte reiterated his plan to declare the entire island of Boracay as a land reform area and award it to some 80 Aeta settlers who will qualify as beneficiaries.
The President’s decision to put Boracay under land reform is in line with Presidential Proclamation No. 1064 signed way back in 2006 and affirmed as constitutional by the Supreme Court classifying parts of the island of Boracay into forestland and agricultural land.
We understand that the President has never visited Boracay personally. Who is advising him on this move by making a farmland of the developed resort island?
Some readers will recall that before the rehab program causing the temporary closure of the island, Boracay has been declared as the Second Best Island in Asia by Travel and Leisure Magazine in its 22nd Annual Listing of Resorts issued in July 2017.
Boracay Island has become also a premier cruise ship destination in the Philippines. The Department of Tourism (DOT) reported that as of December 2017 there were 16 cruise ships that visited Boracay and brought in 27,000 tourists and 15,700 crew members.
For 2018 there were 18 cruise ships scheduled to visit Boracay again and are expected to bring in more than 50,000 tourists and 25,000 crew members.
Another point that we would like to remind the advisers of our President is that we have 7,507 islands in the Philippine archipelago, including the 400 newly discovered in 2016.
The National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) said only 2,000 of our islands have inhabitants and duly identified, while 5,507 others are still unnamed and without settlers.
NAMRIA defines an island as a landmass above sea level at any given time and can support animal and plant life.
We do not know why this NAMRIA has held on to this list of uninhabited islands for many years, but nothing has been done by the government about developing or distributing them to the thousands of jobless and landless in our country.
We invite our land reform advocates who advise the President on Boracay to check with NAMRIA how many of the 5,507 unnamed and vacant islands will they need so they can introduce land reform or other land development ideas that they wish, but they must leave Boracay alone because it has become a resort island!
It is regrettable that our government has no ongoing program for our uninhabited islands in the country, even just to identify their locations and give them names to start with.
***
Historical Quote of the Week
“The first concrete road in the country – that from Forbes Bridge in La Paz to Jaro Plaza.” (For comments or re-action, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com)/PN
