The Manila Times-June 8
The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday said it is working on turning portions of land in Boracay belonging to the Ati tribe into an agro-tourism destination as part of the six-month rehabilitation of the world-famous island in the country’s Visayas region.
A team of experts from the DA, according to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, is collaborating with Ati tribe members living in a two-hectare land in Boracay to launch a program that will provide sustainable livelihood for the community.
“The program will be part of the 4Ks Program of the DA or Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran ng Kababayang Katutubo (Livelihood and Progress of Filipino Indigeneous Peoples), which I personally conceptualized and designed so that the long marginalized and neglected tribal people of the country will be brought into the mainstream of society and contribute to the country’s food production program,” Piñol said in his Facebook post.
He described the Ati residents as Boracay’s tribal members who “once upon a time owned the whole island but now have been squeezed into a two-hectare area, which they have fought hard to retain.”
Piñol said part of the two-hectare Ati land will be transformed into a vegetable production area using a solar-powered greenhouse and dairy goat milk parlor.
He added that the remaining portions of the land will be used for the establishment of an organic restaurant where indigenous food recipes could be offered to tourists.
Piñol said the DA will also establish a tribal-inspired hostel with complete facilities for trainings and seminars to attract more visitors to Boracay island.
Under the program, the agency will be assisted by workers of the Agricultural Training Institute, he added.
“The whole area is envisioned to become a tourist destination in itself with the Ati people benefiting from the influx of tourists who I believe would be interested to have a taste of indigenous food recipes, stay in a tribal-designed hostel or have a taste of organically produced milk and dairy products,” Piñol said.
Citing estimates by DA agriculture experts, he added that an Ati tribal family will start earning P100,000 per hectare per year by 2020, adding that bulk of the income will coming on the fifth year when the industrial trees are harvested and expected to earn at least P1 million per hectare.
Pinol said that since the implementation of the 4Ks program, the DA has provided sustainable livelihoods to various tribal groups who own vast lands, which focus on planting industrial trees like falcata and gmelina to be intercropped with coffee, cacao, black pepper or abaca and rootcrops like organic ube and camote.
“The Ati tribe of Boracay island will no longer be just hawkers and spectators to the thriving tourism industry in their ancestral land that benefits big businessmen because they too will be part of the booming tourism industry when the popular world vacation destination reopens on October 26 this year,” Piñol said.
Boracay island was closed to tourists on April 26 this year on orders of President Rodrigo Duterte for six-month total clean-up and rehabilitation after it degenerated into a “cesspool” from neglect and extreme commercialism.
The government’s Inter-Agency Task Force has four months left to save the island from further deterioration.
