Duterte repeats: Entire Boracay under land reform
MANILA - Placing the entire island of Boracay under land reform will rectify “inadequacies” that led to inequality among indigenous peoples living in the area, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday, May 31.
“The entire island (of Boracay) will be subjected to the land reform. I will give it back to the native,” the President said during the inquguration o fthe 420-MW Pagbilao 3 Base-load Powr Plan in Quezon province.
“Besides, the minorities there could not get their lands there. Correct, (that’s one of the) certain inadequacies that you cannot exempt. My administration, we’re trying
to correct it,” he added.
Boracay, a famous island destination plagued with environmental and sewage problems, has been closed to tourists since April 26 to pave the way for its rehabilitation. The closure is scheduled to last for six months.
Duterte first declared his plan to declare the entire island of Boracay into a land reform area and distribute the land to local farmers.
The Department of Agrarian Reform earlier said 408.5113 hectares of agricultural land in Boracay may be placed under Duterte’s proposed land reform program.
In 2006, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo classified Boracay Island into 628.96 hectares of agricultural land and 377.69 hectares of forest land.
Some 220.4 hectares of the agricultural land in Boracay were converted into other uses and exempted from land reform while the remaining 408.5113 hectares could still be covered by land reform.
Duterte, who once described Boracay as a “cesspool,” said he could still allow “about half or one kilometer” of the worldfamous island to be used for commercial development.
“Boracay will be totally ruined because there’s no other way that the dirt of the humans will go. It cannot climb to the mountains. It always goes to the sea whatever you do. And that’s why you have to limit the humans there,” Duterte said.
“And I hope Congress will, maybe agree with me. You may cut a strip... Maybe you can carve out a strip there, inland, about half or one kilometer,” he added.