Return of Boracay to locals more important to Duterte

President Duterte is not at all bothered if the proposed land reform program in Boracay will fail as long as he has returned the land to the locals.

The President said land beneficiaries could still have the option to sell their lots to big businesses if they want once the rehabilitation period is over.

“Nagsabi sila, ‘Mayor, total failure ang land reform kasi pinagbili nila uli ‘yung awarded.’ Sabi ko naman sa, ‘No problem.’ It does not really hurt me so much (They said, ‘Mayor, land reform is a total failure because they sold the awarded lots. I said, ‘No problem.’ It does not really hurt me so much),” Duterte said during the oath taking of Region 4A barangay captains in Laguna last Thursday.

“Why? Kung ipagbili nila, at least ‘yung tenant mo nakahawak ng milyon o thousands of pesos na hindi nila mahawakan kailanman. Tapos balang araw, if so they would decide, if they convert the whole place into commercial — residential, eh ‘di ipagbili nila (Why? If they sell it, at least the tenant can hold a million or thousand pesos that they never get to hold. In the future, if so they would decide, if they convert the whole place into commercial, residential, they can sell them),” he added.

Earlier, the President declared plans to place Boracay under land reform once the rehabilitation works on the polluted island are finished. Duterte wanted to give Boracay back to the natives and let Congress determine only a small strip of the island for commercial use.

The President, however, recently revealed that his true reason behind the proposed land reform of Boracay was to give the locals a chance to sell the lands and earn huge sum of money in the future. Duterte said this would somehow even the score since the rich people have benefited from the island development for many years.

In his remarks in Laguna, the President explained that he had no personal interest in Boracay other than returning it to the natives, not the privileged few.

“I did not spend millions of pesos cleaning Boracay and just to give it to the rich. Maswerte kayo. I’ll give it back to the poor,” Duterte said. “I’ve been telling everybody, ‘Allow government to clean Boracay then after that, I will give it to the rightful owner,”’ he added.

Duterte also said he would not allow the rich to build their private resorts or subdivisions in the island.