Vol. XXII, No. 54 [ Business World Online ]
Thursday, October 9, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
THE SUPREME COURT has upheld a 
two-year-old presidential proclamation declaring the tourist getaway of Boracay Island as forest land and agricultural area that is therefore owned by the state.
Commercialization is often cited
as Boracay’s bane. — BW File Photo
The decision by the full court puts to rest a dispute between Boracay resort owners, many of them without titles to their beachfront properties, and the government, which has long wanted to auction off Boracay land amid rampant commercialization.
Lower courts had earlier favored the resort owners in separate decisions.
Properties with existing titles are not covered by the 2006 proclamation, the 35-page decision penned by Associate Justice Ruben T. Reyes said.
Proclamation 1064, issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, classified Boracay Island into 400 hectares of reserved forest land, for "protection purposes" and 628.96 hectares of agricultural land, which is "alienable and disposable."
"The continued possession and considerable investment of private claimants do not automatically give them a vested right in Boracay. Nor do these give them a right to apply for a title to the land they are presently occupying," the high court said.
The case started when supposed property owners Jose S. Yap, Jr., Libertad Talapian, Mila Y. Sumnad, and Aniceto Yap went to an Aklan court in a bid to secure titles, claiming their "predecessors-in-interest" had owned the land "since time immemorial."
Moreover, the petitioners pointed to Proclamation 1801, issued by the late President Ferdinand Marcos in 1978, which declared Boracay Island as a tourist zone.
Both the lower court and the Court of Appeals decided in their favor.
The case went up to the Supreme Court. Before it could decide, another group of petitioners went to court to question Proclamation 1064.
The claimants included Orlando Sacay, the owner of Waling-Waling Beach Resort and chairman of the Board of Boracay Foundation, Inc. and Wilfredo Gelito, owner of Willy’s Beach Resort. They said the Arroyo proclamation infringed on their "prior vested rights," having owned their lots "since time immemorial."
The high court consolidated the two cases to come up with a decision.
It said the claimants could not just lay claim to the areas without proof that they really had ownership since June 12, 1945. As stated in the Public Land Act or Commonwealth Act 141, only those who can prove ownership over properties since the date have the right to have lots registered automatically in their names, which is, in legal parlance, the judicial confirmation of imperfect titles.
The law, however, limited alienable or disposable lands only to those lands officially classified as such. And if the land is not classified, as in Boracay, the Regalian Doctrine should be invoked. This doctrine states that all lands of the public domain belong to the state, the high court noted.
Unclassified lands, as a consequence, should be considered public forests under a separate prescription, Presidential Decree 705. Only agricultural lands can be disposed of for private ownership.
"The burden of proof in overcoming the presumption of State ownership of the lands of the public domain is on the person applying for registration, who must prove that the land subject of the application is alienable or disposable," the high court declared.
In fact, it was only through Proclamation 1064 that the government classified certain parts as agricultural, and therefore alienable and disposable, it said.
The high court also debunked the claimants’ contentions that Boracay can still be considered forest land.
"At any rate, the Court is tasked to determine the legal status of Boracay Island, and not look into its physical layout. Hence, even if its forest cover has been replaced by beach resorts, restaurants and other commercial establishments, it has not been automatically converted from public forest to alienable agricultural land," it said.
The high court provided a leeway of sorts to the Boracay establishments, saying the lack of title does not mean lack of right to possess.
"For one thing, those with lawful possession may claim good faith as builders of improvements. They can take steps to preserve or protect their possession. For another, they may look into other modes of applying for original registration of title, such as by homestead or sales patent," the court said.
A more realistic approach is through Congress, it said, which may enact a law to reclassify the lands and entitle the claimants to ownership over certain areas.
An official of the Environment department, which initiated the bid to auction off Boracay land, said the government would study the implications of the ruling.
