Who owns this Boracay land? IPs protest over canceled land titles

ILOILO, Philippines – As Boracay Island continues to thrive as a global tourism destination, members of the island’s indigenous Ati community say they are still fighting for their place on the island, protesting the cancellation of land titles granted to them in 2018. 

On Monday, March 16, members of the Boracay Ati Tribal Organization (BATO) staged a protest outside the office of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Kalibo, Aklan, condemning what they described as the unjust cancellation of their five Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA). 

The five CLOAs, granted to them under the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte, cover 3.1 hectares of land parcels in Barangay Manoc-Manoc, Boracay, which DAR provided to the Ati community for farming and livelihood. 

In 2022, less than three months after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assumed office, several individuals and corporations filed petitions seeking to cancel the land titles, arguing that the land was unsuitable for agriculture. 

Among the petitioners were Digna Elizabeth Ventura and Gabriel Singson Jr., along with corporate entities Bohol Regal Incorporated, Jeco Development Corporation, and Y Investments Philippines Incorporated.

In 2023, then-DAR-Western Visayas director Sheila Enciso upheld the petitions covering all five disputed lots. On March 5, 2024, the DAR Central Office issued a final cancellation order for the five CLOAs after the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Soils and Water Management certified the land as unsuitable for agricultural use.

The Ati community has since filed motions for reconsideration and appeals.

‘We are Boracay’s origin’

With their legal battle dragging on for years, members of the Ati community are now calling on the Marcos administration to reverse the cancellation. 

Maria Tamboon, livelihood coordinator of BATO, said the land granted to them for agricultural cultivation is more than just property for the original settlers of the island. 

This land is our home, our source of food, and our place of culture and tradition,” she said in Filipino during the protest. “The sea and forests of Boracay shaped our identity as Ati. We are not just part of Boracay’s history – we are its origin.” 

However, she said the rapid rise of tourism and economic development on the island has also intensified the community’s struggle to retain space for livelihood.

“The spaces where we lived gradually shrank. The lands passed down from our ancestors are now subject to various claims, private titles, and large development projects. In our ancestral land, we began to feel like strangers,” she said. 

Tamboon emphasized that their community is not against development but wants it to be inclusive. 

“We are not against progress. We also want our community to progress. We also want our community to be part of the economy. But our participation should be anchored on the security of our ancestral lands, respect for our culture, and just participation in decision-making that will affect our lives,” she stressed 

Tamboon added that while Boracay has become a world-renowned tourism destination, many members of the Ati community remain in informal jobs without security of tenure or social protection.

“The land struggle of the Atis in Boracay is the reflection of the issues faced by the other indigenous peoples in the country that continue to fight for their ancestral domains against aggressive commercialization,” she said. 

Grace Quimpo, a former senior agrarian reform officer of DAR Aklan, has joined the Ati community in their plight. 

“Why am I here? Because something is wrong. Something is wrong because they only used the Ati,” she said, recalling that the Ati community had been living quietly on the island and did not originally ask for the agricultural land. 

Quimpo said that as early as 2018, she already felt that something was amiss with the initiative, fearing that the Ati and other indigenous peoples were being used merely by politicians to score “pogi points.” 

She urged the DAR to resolve the issue and uphold its mandate to improve the lives of agrarian reform beneficiaries, noting that the continued harassment of the Ati community demonstrates the agency’s failure to fulfill that mission.

Tensions on the ground

The years-long dispute has escalated into incidents that the Ati community criticized as harassment of claimants in the contested properties.

On March 24, 2024, several individuals claiming to represent one of the petitioners, Ventura, blocked and asserted control over portions of the CLOAs-covered property. 

Another incident occurred on February 16, 2025, when unidentified guards barred members of the Ati community from going to parcels of land claimed by the Jeco Development Corporation. 

Daniel Dinopol, legal counsel of BATO, told Rappler that they received a denial of their appeal for the cancellation on June 20, 2025. A motion for reconsideration has been subsequently filed on February 4, 2026. 

Following the February 16 incident, Dinopol argued that the denial order does not constitute a final disposition of the case because the motion for reconsideration remains unresolved.

He added that under normal administrative procedures, enforcement actions should only proceed once a decision becomes final.

“There was a denial, a loss, but the defeat is not final and executory because we filed a motion for reconsideration,” he said. 

He explained that if the case was already final, there should have been a notice to vacate or a writ of execution or demolition, which would be implemented by a DAR sheriff, not personnel representing the claimants. 

The lawyer also questioned the petitioners’ claims, noting that the land area of the five CLOAs had previously been classified as timberland or forestland under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). 

He said private individuals or corporations cannot legally occupy such areas unless the land has been reclassified by the government as alienable and disposable.

He argued that the claimants’ alleged pre-CLOA possession was illegal squatting on DENR land, invalidating their priority over Ati rights derived from DAR’s 2018 CLOAs. 

“How could these claimants precede the rights of the Ati, who received the CLOA title? It is illegal for any person or corporate entity to occupy a forest area or timberland unless that land under the DENR is considered and reclassified by the DENR through a presidential order as alienable and disposable,” he stressed. 

“The right of the Ati was from the DAR… they are occupying a land under the jurisdiction of the DENR,” he added. 

Dinopol added that some claimants cited tax declarations as proof of their claims, but stressed that paying taxes on government land does not automatically establish ownership.

He said BATO’s case will be a long legal battle, but vowed that he will exhaust legal means to ensure that the Ati community of Boracay will get what was granted to them. 

“We are doing an exhaustion of administrative remedies. This might even reach the Supreme Court,” he said. – Rappler.com