ILOILO CITY – Over 1,000 households and hotel owners in Boracay Island in Aklan will be displaced for illegally occupying the timberland, said the top official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Western Visayas.
DENR-6 Regional Director Jim O. Sampulna, in an interview Friday afternoon, said they had completed their inventory of illegal forest occupants in the whole Boracay Island. DENR started the inventory last July.
The illegal settlers are specifically established within the 400-hectare of the island’s timberland. "We are done with our inventory. There is a portion there that is occupied by individuals, they have houses made of cement and there are even hotels, but they were established within a timberland," Sampulna said.
Sampulna said his next move would be to call a technical conference with the identified illegal forest occupants to urge them to vacate the area. But he assured that an area in Malay, Aklan had been identified where these illegal occupants could transfer.
"If they will not leave, I will file a case against them," Sampulna warned. As of now, Sampulna said that there was no initial commitment from these illegal settlers.
"This is what we are telling them to do or else they will be imprisoned. I do not need their commitment because they are in the property of the government and I intend to reforest those areas," Sampulna added. (PNA)
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