Vol. XXII, No. 71 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
Monday, November 3, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
RESORT OWNERS in a premier Visayas island-getaway have asked the Supreme Court to reverse a decision that allowed the state to gain control of the tourist haven.
In separate motions for reconsideration, private resort owners and Boracay residents also asked the high court to hear their claims of ownership through oral arguments.
Representatives of major law firms should also be invited to share their views and comments on a decision that will become "judicial precedent binding on all," they added.
The claimants were Mila Y. Sumndad, Aniceto Yap and Libertad Talapian. The signatories of another petition were Orlando Sacay, owner of Waling-Waling Beach Resort and chairman of the Board of Boracay Foundation, Inc.; and Wilfredo Gelito, owner of Willy’s Beach Resort.
The high court earlier rejected the petitioners’ claim that Proclamation 180 issued by President Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1978 allowed them to apply for a "judicial confirmation of imperfect titles," or to have certain lots automatically registered in their names. The proclamation declared Boracay Island in Malay town, Aklan province as a tourist zone, and, therefore, alienable and disposable.
The high court has held that Boracay was an unclassified land, thus, it should be considered a public forest under another law — Presidential Decree (PD) 705 — issued on May 19, 1975.
Under the titling system, only agricultural lands can be disposed of for private ownership. In fact, it was only through Proclamation 1064, issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006, that the government classified certain parts of the country as agricultural, and therefore alienable and disposable, it said.
The proclamation classified Boracay into 400 hectares of reserved forest land for "protection purposes," and 628.96 hectares of alienable and disposable agricultural land.
The resort owners, however, said the same proclamation infringed on their "prior vested rights," having owned the lots "since time immemorial."
Wrongly assumed
In their motions for reconsideration, the resort owners claimed the high court wrongly assumed that PD 705 automatically deemed unclassified lands as forest lands.
"There is no presumption that unclassified lands are deemed forest land. Consequently, the law and jurisprudence existing before such decree should apply in that unclassified lands are deemed agricultural and capable of acquisitive prescription," they said.
The owners claimed they already owned the lands "since time immemorial," even prior to PD 705.
They added if Boracay was forest land, "why the need to even encourage investors to pour in money into the island?" Boracay is part of the government’s Investment Priority Plan in 1993 and 1995.
Proclamation 1064 should be nullified as well, they said, adding Mrs. Arroyo "arrogated upon herself" the power of land classification under the directive.
"It is Congress, not the President, nor anybody else for that matter, which determines the specific limits of forest lands and national parks," they added. — Ira P. Pedrasa
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