An indigenous group seeking to reclaim their land rights in Boracay has filed three separate legal cases against a real estate firm, alleging a forcible takeover of land awarded to them under agrarian reform.
On April 29, the Boracay Ati Tribal Organization (BATO) filed three separate cases before courts in Aklan after accusing JECO Development Corporation of barricading a portion of their ancestral land in Sitio Angol, Barangay Manoc-Manoc, on February 16, 2026, using armed security personnel and without a final court order.
According to BATO, the disputed 8,000-square-meter property is part of a tract of land that has six Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) distributed to 45 Ati families in 2018 through the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) under the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
CARP is a major land reform initiative in the Philippines created under Republic Act No. 6657 and launched in 1988 during the administration of then-President Corazon Aquino.
JECO Development Corporation is one of five petitioners who sought to cancel BATO’s CLOA three months after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office.
The other petitioners include Digna Elizabeth Ventura, Gabriel Singson Jr., and the corporate entities Bohol Regal Incorporated and Y Investments Philippines Incorporated.
“This land is not just a piece of paper to us. It is where we plant, where we raise our children, where our elders taught us who we are. The President himself gave it to us — he put the title in our hands,” BATO Tribal Chieftain Delsa S. Justo said in a statement sent to Brigada News FM Philippines on Friday, May 1.
“Now, a company with armed guards is telling us we cannot enter. We are not asking for anything new. We are asking only to go home,” she added.
For Teddy Baguilat, Jr., “What is happening to the Boracay Ati is not an isolated property dispute; it is a test of whether this country’s land reform commitments mean anything at all.”
“If the courts do not intervene, we are telling every indigenous community in this country: your titles are only as strong as the company willing to ignore them,” he added.
In 2025, DAR fell short of its target to distribute 400,000 hectares of agricultural land, despite posting a 1,133 percent surge in output.
The agency just distributed 302,540 hectares to 176,202 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), issuing 199,838 land titles under the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) Program and the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project.
Legal actions
As anger mounts, the group has filed a petition seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) and both preliminary and permanent injunctions against an alleged unlawful intrusion.
The petitioners asked the court to immediately halt JECO’s actions and order the full restoration of their possession and access to the property in question.
They also sought damages, including P1 million in moral damages and another P1 million in exemplary damages, along with payment for attorney’s fees and litigation costs.
Beyond civil relief, the group is also pushing for the criminal prosecution of JECO’s officers and security personnel, citing alleged violations of Articles 280 and 286 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC), which cover qualified trespass to dwelling and grave coercion.
BATO maintained that they held a registered Torrens title over the land, but were blocked from accessing it after a gate, barbed wire, and barricades were installed at the only entry point.
A Torrens title is a state-backed certificate of land ownership that serves as final, unquestionable, and legally protected proof of ownership, intended to ensure stability in land registration.
“A title distributed by the State cannot be replaced by a barricade installed by a private party,” the group said. “The issue is not development versus indigenous people. The issue is whether development follows the law.”
Timeline of the dispute
The dispute traces back to 2011–2012, when the Ati community secured a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) covering 2 hectares in Barangay Manoc-Manoc, described as their first formal land security on the island.
In November 2018, following then-President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive on Boracay land reform, DAR issued CLOAs to dozens of Ati families, with titles personally distributed during a ceremony.
Since then, BATO members reportedly possessed, cultivated, and occupied the awarded land, developing agricultural areas.
However, in 2023, DAR in Western Visayas upheld the petitions covering all five disputed lots, citing concerns on agricultural suitability, prompting the Ati group to contest the decision.
On January 29, 2024, DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III issued final cancellation order for the five CLOAs to BATO, leading the group to file a Motion for Reconsideration (MR).
As of February 2024 up to the present, the motion remains pending, with the order yet to attain finality and no writ of execution issued, BATO said.
Tension escalates
Tensions escalated on February 16, 2026, when armed security personnel from a private entity, allegedly from JECO Development Corporation, sealed one of the CLOA-covered areas, barring BATO members from entering.
A police report was subsequently filed, and three simultaneous legal actions were initiated before the courts in Aklan, BATO said.
Meanwhile, on April 8, two resolutions were issued by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Aklan, calling for the intervention of the Office of the President, and urging DAR to “restore occupancy by ATI beneficiaries of a lot by virtue of the original certificate of title (OCT) No. CARP2018000280 containing an area of 8,000 square meters.”
BATO said the case also raises broader issues on indigenous peoples’ (IP) rights, including the requirement for free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) under the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA), as the Ati—recognized as the original inhabitants of Boracay.
JECO Development Corporation has yet to issue a public response as of the posting.*
Reymund Titong is a Filipino journalist steadily building his voice in the field of news reporting, driven by a commitment to tell meaningful and relevant stories.
He serves as a correspondent for Rappler, contributes to Negros Daily Bulletin, and maintains a blog on Medium.