Panlilios regain control of Boracay property

MANILA, Philippines - Panlilio-owned firm Boulevard Holdings Inc. (BHI) has regained control of its Aklan property held hostage by its former owners for more than a year.

In a disclosure to the local bourse, BHI chairman Jose Panlilio said the company was able to reclaim last Friday its Friday’s Boracay Beach Resort in Boracay Island through the help of the Municipal Trial Court of Aklan.

 “After one year and one month of losing control, we are happy to report that we have re-occupied our 2,600 square meter prime Boracay beachfront parcel, and are now in control of the area,” Panlilio said.

“Last Friday, March 13, the lady sheriff of the Aklan MCT Court with 60 deputized policemen and 50 of our engineering department staff implemented the Writ of Possession, because of a finding of forcible entry against Mila Yap, son Datu Yap and their 200 mostly Muslim henchmen,” he added.

BHI earlier reported that in February last year, almost a third of the land frontage up to the back portion of the resort was overrun by 200 armed civilian men led by Datu Yap and other children of the lot’s former owner.

BHI said the armed men have walled off half of the restaurant, occupied 17 rooms in the building, drained the pool, and started walling with hollow blocks lot.

Sales of BHI suffered tremendously due to problems in its Boracay resort.

BHI’s consolidated sales as of end-February this year plunged 48 percent to P48.38 million from P100.6 million during the same period last year.

“With this wonderful report, our sales with the extra 17 deluxe rooms will rise from P8 million a month to P18 million a month during peak season. We, however, lost almost P10 million to P12 million a month in missed opportunities for two Chinese New Years, one Christmas Season, and two Easter Holidays. This was the terrible suffering BHI had to go through in this segment of our business,” Panlilio said.