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Ati tribe appeals after eviction from Boracay land

Philippines | Luzon

Ati tribe appeals after eviction from Boracay land

By Tara Yap

ILOILO CITY – The Ati Indigenous Peoples (IPs) tribe is pleading after they were recently displaced from a disputed land at world-famous Boracay Island in Malay town, Aklan province.

ATI children play on the white-sand beach of Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan. (Tara Yap)

"This land is ours. We have the title,” said Delsa Justo, the leader of the Boracay Ati Tribal Organization, in an open letter.

Forty-four Ati members could no longer enter the 1,282-square meter land where they lived since 2018 after the property was barricaded by guards of one of the private claimants late last month.

"We are fighting and we will continue to fight for what is rightfully ours in a legal and moral way," Justo said following the decision of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Western Visayas to revoke the Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) awarded to them after three private claimants filed a petition against the document.

The government of President Rodrigo Duterte awarded the CLOAs in 2018. Duterte said the Ati people have to be given farmlands.

In 2023, DAR-Western Visayas issued a resolution that the land was not suitable for farming and as a result, the CLOAs were cancelled.

The Ati people vowed to fight back and reclaim their land. "This does not mean we are letting go of our land. We continue to fight for our human rights. We are humans. We are indigenous,” Justo added.

Related Tags

Boracay Island Ati tribe Indigenous People

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