Row between DENR, Boracay resort owners scaring off foreign investors

Boracay Property Holdings Inc.(BPHI) which sold 12 hectares to international hotel chain Shangri-La said the ongoing property rights tussle between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Boracay Island resort owners is turning off foreign investors planning to build world-class amenities in the famous tourist destination.

"This dispute is destroying the confidence of foreign investors that want to build facilities for the higher-end tourist market. It sets back efforts to lure the five-star hotel chains that would elevate Boracay into a world-class tourist destination like Bali in Indonesia or Phuket in Thailand, we may never be able to play catch up with them," said Steve Tajanlangit, vice-chairman of BPHI.

In a recent dialogue between DENR officials and the resort owners, the government said it would pursue plans to declare portions of Boracay as alienable and disposable (A & D) and open these lands for public auction in which current locators can bid for their own lot and establishments.

A survey done by the National Mapping and Resource Information Agency (NAMRIA) showed that even Shangri-la’s property, located on the northwest side of Boracay, is likely to be covered by the DENR’s plan to reclassify the area as a forest land.

"I don’t see how that is possible. Shangri-La’s land is titled. Besides that area is covered by a Presidential Proclamation last March, specifying the area as a special economic tourism zone. There is a virgin forest area that is also titled but with specific directive no development can take place there except for the open spaces," said Tajanlangit, adding the directive by President Arroyo included BPHI’s remaining land holdings.

BPHI, which acquired 80 hectares in 2002 from one of the property units of the Ayala Group, is currently talking to at least two five-star international hotel chains to build facilities similar to the P3.3 -billion, 200-room hotel villas that Shangri-La will construct.

Under BPHI’s development plan, three hotel chains can be accommodated. Other facilities that can be installed include 16 regional homes to be built by the different regions in the country showcasing their respective products, wellness centers and a cultural/convention center.

Tajanlangit said however, that the DENR’s resolve to take over lands despite the fact that current locators have already invested so much in their property will not resolve the ills that the government claims would be addressed if it is able to declare some properties as A & D lands.

The DENR said its plan will finally address concerns about the rapid deterioration of the island’s environment because of overdevelopment especially in the four-kilometer long white beach area. Environmental experts previously noted that the groundwater quality of Boracay had exceeded its threshold capacity and blamed the coliform crisis in 1997 on poor governance by the local government.

DENR’s plan will open up about 56 percent of the total land area in Boracay for public bidding while 25 percent will be declared as forest land to be used for plantations and fishponds and 11.49 percent will be categorized as protected areas. These will cover parks, buffer zones, and a conservation area for the endangered bat species on the island.

Currently, 98 percent of the lands in Boracay are untitled and most property holdings are substantiated only by tax declarations. These makes the operators of hotels and other establishments in the island vulnerable because tax declarations, while recognized as evidence of ownership by government, could be subjected to direct and collateral attack by other parties claiming ownership of said properties.

"They (DENR) and other concerned government agencies only have to implement existing rules and the local government to enforce ordinances that ensure sustainable development in the island. Nothing can be achieved by uprooting residents and establishment owners," noted Tajanlangit.

Despite the opposition of local residents and resort owners, the DENR is determined to pursue its cause and has elevated the matter to the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn two previous affirmations made by the lower courts that Boracay is a private land owing to a Presidential Decree issued by the late President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s. that declared it as a marine and tourism zone.