Boracay tribe fenced off; CHR, DAR help sought

The Ati Tribe of Boracay belonging to the Asosasyon sang Boracay Ati Tribal Organization has sought the assistance and support of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in their ongoing legal cases and incidents of abuses and harassment concerning the agricultural land granted them through Presidential Decree by former President Rodrigo Duterte.

In the Incident Report provided the DAILY TRIBUNE, the tribe said last Sunday that they were dispossessed of their lands when security guards of one of the developer-claimants entered their property and surrounded the area with fences.

The night of 25 March, Ati mothers were prevented from entering their homes such that they had to spend the night out, with their children left alone in their residences.

They added that the developer-claimants claimed that the Ati’s title had already been canceled by the DAR Central Office.

However, the tribe leaders said there is no final order received by them yet as the case is still ongoing, and a Petition of Certiorari was filed by the indigenous group to the Court of Appeals, and no judgment has yet been rendered concerning the true owners of the disputed property.

It was in November 2018, when former President Duterte granted the indigenous group a total of 3.1 hectares, divided into five lots through a Certificate of Land Ownership Award by the Department of Agrarian Reform DAR.

Before this, the lots appear to have been abandoned. In two years, the Atis have made the land productive and turned the property into vegetable gardens with livestock, and dragon fruits, among others. Their produce sustained them through the pandemic. They are even supplying some hotels and business owners with their harvest.