Boracay hotel developer hits DENR, cries harassment

The developer of a P1.2-billion hotel and convention center in Boracay is poised to file a graft complaint against Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza and DENR officials in Region 6, who he accused of “conspiring” to prevent his company from pursuing its project on the resort island.

In a press conference yesterday, Richard King, president and CEO of J. King & Sons Company Inc., refuted DENR claims that his Boracay Crown Regency is being built in a wetland area on the world-famous island.

“The ‘wetland’ they are saying is located on the other side of the road, far from our property. The water is only illegally diverted to our property (because of the box culvert),” he said.

King insisted that his property had been classified as “cocal” or coconut land since 1948, and eventually reclassified into a “tourist zone” in 1998, as shown in several real property tax declarations that can be traced to as far as its first owner, a certain Simplicio Gelito, some 60 years ago, and up to one Rosario Garcia a decade ago.

King is the third owner of the land. He purchased the property in 2007. His company plans to build a total of four hotel and condotel buildings on the property.

The project, whose total cost would reach P2 billion, would have a convention center, a 2,800-square-meter swimming pool, and a sewerage treatment plant.

King claimed that there appears to be “clear attempts to harass us” through an alleged “conspiracy of the DENR” to prevent his company from pursuing its project.

King described as “baseless” the case, which Atienza filed with the Office of the Ombudsman against J. King & Sons Company Inc., and Mayor Ciceron Cawaling and municipal engineer Elizer Casidsid, both of Malay, Aklan, which has jurisdiction over Boracay, for supposedly violating the construction moratorium on the island.

Meanwhile, Atienza lauded the decision of the Kalibo, Aklan regional trial court upholding the DENR order against the J. King project.

The court denied J. King’s petition for a restraining order, injunction and damages against the DENR for stopping its hotel project.  – Katherine Adraneda