KING VS ENFORCER
DENR Chief, Hotel owner in Aklan showdown
By Jonathan L. Mayuga
Correspondent
Published in the Business Mirror May 29, 2008
The continuing development of Boracay Island as a prime tourist destination is now the subject of heated debate between local and national government officials. The debate was triggered by the desire of local officials of the municipality of Malay to develop the island to realize its full potential as a world-class tourism destination, on one hand, and on the other hand, the desire by national government officials to protect the island’s environment and natural resources from the hazards of unbridled development.
Proclamation 1064
Central to this is the vague land use and classification of certain areas in the island, which was aggravated by the issuance of Presidential Proclamation 1064 on May 22, 2006, by President Arroyo. The proclamation is being contested in court by various stakeholders, particularly hotel, resort and restaurant owners in the island.
The issuance of Proclamation 1064 paved the way for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to step into the picture.
The proclamation classified the entire island into forestland and agricultural land for purposes of protecting the island, as well as declaring some areas as alienable and disposable pursuant to Section 13 of Presidential Decree 705, or the Revised Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines, and Commonwealth Act 141, or the Public Land Act, subject to actual ground survey and delineation.
The proclamation also declared that all existing roads, trails and pathways and a 15-meter buffer zone on each side of the centerline of roads and trails which are reserved for right-of-way shall form part of the area reserved for forestland protection purposes.
Illegal construction?
DENR Secretary Lito Atienza recently filed graft charges against the mayor of Malay town, Aklan, Ceciron Cawaling, and officials of J. King and Sons Inc. in connection with construction of the P1.2-billion Boracay Crown Regency Hotel and Convention Center project in barangay Balabag, which the DENR deems illegal.
The construction site, Atienza averred, used to be a wetland, hence, the area is unfit for such construction project and falls under the jurisdiction of the DENR, that being its classification.
This is the first time the DENR filed graft charges against a local chief executive for being remiss on his duty. Atienza said the mayor gave the owner of the hotel undue favor in allowing the company to proceed with the construction, albeit at its initial stage of hauling and compacting back-filling materials, even though there’s a construction moratorium.
Wetland or tourism zone?
Local officials, as well as company executives of J. King and Sons, insisted that the project is not covered by the moratorium, because it was already ongoing when the moratorium took effect on January 2, 2008.
Seeking court reprieve, J. King and Sons asked Branch 5 Judge Elmo del Rosario to create a commission that will determine the land classification of the company’s 1.6-hectare property to once and for all settle the issue. The company insisted that per its tax declaration since 1948, it was an agricultural land devoted to coconut, and in 1997, it was reclassified as a tourism zone by the municipal government of Malay.
The court has granted the petition and has asked the parties to submit a list of names from which the members of the commission will be picked.
Prior to the issuance of Proclamation 1064, illegal settlers had started to settle on the island. To date, only 20 percent of the island has land titles. Most of those who claim rights pay only taxes and, by virtue of tax declaration, use the land accordingly.
Tourist destination
The municipality of Malay, Aklan, is a prime tourist destination because of the beautiful island of Boracay. Hundreds of thousands of tourists come to visit the island, prompting its development mainly for tourism purposes.
In the past decade, more and more people have settled on the island because of the income potential of tourist arrivals, especially during the summer.
Malay is one of the 17 municipalities that comprise the Province of Aklan, having a land area of 6,731 hectares or 67.31 sq km comprising 3.63 percent of the total land area of the province. It is located in the northwestern tip of Panay bounded on the north by Sibuyan and Sulu Sea, on the east by the municipality of Nabas, on the west by the municipality of Buruanga and on the south by the province of Antique. It includes Boracay Island and Tigwatian or Laurel Island.
It is approximately 76 road kilometers from Kalibo, the capital town of Aklan, 237 road kilometers from Iloilo City, and 12 hours’ sea travel and 45 minutes’ air travel from Manila.
‘Hilly and mountainous’
According to the official web site of the municipality of Malay, 60.2 percent of land area of Malay is classified as hilly to mountainous, irregularly shaped and with elevation of less than 600 meters. In Boracay Island, about two-thirds of the total land area falls between 8-percent and 16-percent slope. Lowland and gently sloping areas are found near the shoreline.
Based on its existing land classification, 33.9395 hectares are residential; 2,719.0742 hectares agricultural; 13.6800 hectares commercial; 2,599.0000 hectares forests; 2.3960 hectares institutional; 13.8400 hectares utilities; 1,004.0150 tourism; 8.7012 hectares parks and open space; 111.8258 hectares other built-up areas in rural barangays; and 224.5283 hectares meadows/grasslands.
Part of the island, according to the DENR, remains a forest, and thus should be protected from further destruction.
Atienza said that aside from the forest, the island is host to natural bodies of water such as rivers, streams, swamps, wetlands and mangrove areas. Of the 11 swamps, wetlands and mangrove areas, only two remain, one of which is slowly being illegally reclaimed.
In explaining why he has decided to file charges against the mayor of Malay, Atienza said most of these wetlands were reclaimed and disposed of as private property, with the approval of the local government unit.
Investment haven
Despite the issues hounding Boracay, it remains as an investment haven because of the tourist-drawing beach properties.
Richard King, chairman and chief executive officer of J. King and Sons Inc., is bullish over his company’s multimillion-peso investment in the world-renowned Boracay Island.
King said despite the moratorium issue hounding one of his company’s four projects, sales are still up even before actual construction has begun.
The six-month construction moratorium on new construction took effect only in January 2, 2008. By July 2, 2008, construction of hotels and condominiums, as well as resorts in the prime tourist destination, is expected to resume.
Room shortage
At present, there are only a total of 7,500 rooms to accommodate tourist arrivals in the island, particularly during summer, Holy Week and the Christmas season.
The highest recorded number of tourists arriving in Boracay was in 2006, wherein some 500,000 local and foreign tourists came for the summer vacation, according to the Boracay Foundation Inc.—an organization of various stakeholders that include hotel, resort and restaurant owners on the island.
Lucrative business
The hotel-and-restaurant business is a lucrative business in Boracay. Most of the tourists are moneyed and are themselves willing to buy property, if not condominium units, where they can stay on yearly visits to Boracay.
According to King, as of last week, 20 percent of the 457 rooms of the P1.2-billion Boracay Crown Regency Hotel and Convention Center in barangay Balabag have been sold even though they just announced an increase in their condominium’s unit price by P1 million, or from P3 million to P4 million, owing to the demand.
The company’s biggest project so far represents “water,” one of the four elements of nature which include fire, earth and wind that each of the company’s four projects represent.
Representing “fire” is the P120-million, 40-room Crown Regency Hotel in Station 3 of the Island, to be formally opened in September this year. The Crown Regency Prince Hotel, an P80- million, 36-room condominium-hotel project representing “earth,” will start operating in December this year.
A fourth project that will represent wind is still in the design and planning stage.
The Boracay Crown Regency Hotel and Convention Center boasts of a 2,800-sq-m swimming pool—the biggest swimming pool ever to be built on the island—a water park, slides and kiddie attractions that it claims no other hotel or resort in Boracay offers.
It is a few minutes’ walk away from the beach. The hotel is accessible by tricycle, the only means of public transportation leading to the beaches of Boracay.
The Cebuano businessman is confident that in the next few months, sales will continue to go up and his company will eventually hit the target sale even before actual construction takes place.
The project is presently at its initial stage. Workers are hauling and compacting back-filling materials in the 1.6-hectare property, situated along the main road of barangay Balabag.
This, according to King, despite the supposed adverse impact of the negative publicity the company’s project has been getting as a result of what he described as the “malicious” allegations by Environment Secretary Atienza against the company in filing graft charges against Mayor Cawaling and company executives of J. King and Sons for proceeding with the construction project.
King said Boracay remains a promising investment haven for those in the hotel, resort and restaurant business, because of the influx of foreign and local tourists from all over the world.
Bold projection
In the next 10 years, local officials of Malay expect the number of tourists visiting Boracay to increase. At present, King said there’s already a room shortage of 5,000 during the peak season. He predicts this will increase to 8,000 in the next few years.
The company is also expanding its business to Bohol, and King noted that the province promises to be the next ecotourism destination in the Philippines.
“We are already looking for properties for future projects, particularly in Bohol, because as the DOT [Department of Tourism] said, Bohol needs big hotels soon,” King said.
King has found an ally in local government officials who support the idea of developing Boracay to achieve its full potential as a prime tourist destination.
Local government officials said they are not keen on issuing a cease-and-desist order to stop ongoing construction in the world-famous Boracay Island that is not covered by the six-month moratorium passed and approved by the members of the municipal council.
Ed Sancho, executive assistant to Mayor Cawaling, clarified that the moratorium covers only new construction and not those that were given building permits before January 2, 2008.
He said Cawaling has, in fact, strictly ordered concerned town officials not to issue building permits since the moratorium took effect. The moratorium will expire on July 2, 2008.
Councilors Rowen Aguirre and Welvic Gelito, who respectively chair the committees on laws and tourism, echoed his sentiment. “We cannot just stop an ongoing project just because the DENR wants it stopped. On our part, we can only stop a project if there’s a violation of the terms and conditions of the building permit,” Aguirre said.
He said such is the case of the controversial P1.2-billion Boracay Crown Regency Hotel and Condominium Project in barangay Balabag.
According to Sancho, ongoing construction projects should proceed with the construction activities because they are not covered by the moratorium. The rule, the local official said, applies to all projects.
There are ongoing construction projects other than the Boracay Crown Regency Hotel and Convention Center, according to Gelito, and issuing a cease-and-desist order to J. King and Sons while allowing others to continue their ongoing construction would be interpreted as a move to single out the company, he said.
Meanwhile, King is expected to sue DENR Secretary Lito Atienza and DENR Region 6 officials and employees for allegedly causing the company undue injury.
King insisted that the Boracay Crown Regency Hotel and Convention Center is a tourism project that’s “aboveboard”—taking note that his company has complied with all the requirements from all agencies.
At present, local officials of Malay, Aklan, are drafting a Comprehensive Land Use Plan to serve as their guide in issuing permits for the development of the island. At the same time, the DENR, too, is set to finish the final draft of the Environmental Master Plan for Boracay for the protection of the environment and the island’s natural resources.
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