CEBU/ILOILO — The Sarrosa family of Western Visayas is talking with foreign investors who are interested in forming a joint venture that will re-develop Sicogon Island into a tourist destination that could rival Boracay.
Edgardo Sarrosa, president of the Sicogon Development Corp., said plans to reopen the island to tourists are being made in line with the government’s thrust to develop tourism in the Visayas.
Sicogon Development owns 70% of the island, or 809 hectares out of the island’s total area of 1,160 hectares. The rest is classified as timberland.
“There are many interested parties. But you know these foreign investors, they want a complete master plan. We want to avoid what happened in Boracay,” Mr. Sarrosa said in a telephone interview.
He was referring to the rash of overdevelopment that is threatening to ruin the island paradise in the Visayas.
Sicogon, one of 23 small islands off the town of Carles at the northeastern tip of Iloilo province, started with an exclusive club resort for the rich families in the Visayas and was ranked among the top tourist destinations in Asia in the ’80s.
The resort was shut down in 1984 due to numerous travel advisories against the Philippines in the aftermath of the Aquino assassination.
The company’s development plans, however, are being opposed by the island’s over 4,000 residents and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), which placed almost half, or 351 hectares, of the Sarrosa property under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Around 200 residents of the island were listed as beneficiaries.
Ricardo B. Fernandez, provincial agrarian reform officer II in Iloilo, said a Notice of Coverage (NOC) was served on Sicogon Development in 2003. But the company did not accept this and instead filed for exemption from CARP in 2005. This has yet to be resolved.
“We will expedite the investigation, especially with regards to their application for exemption from CARP. This is the reason for the delay in the distribution of the land to the farmers,” Mr. Fernandez said.
Sicogon Development also secured an injunction from the Iloilo Regional Trial Court against DAR.
“We are for land reform. But it’s all illegal. We have the title to the property. We have all the records. The island is privately owned. Never in the history of Sicogon did somebody plant rice there,” Mr. Sarrosa said.
The DAR, however, said some of the residents on the island earn a living from both fishing and farming.
“There are farms there. The fishermen also till the land for a living,” Mr. Fernandez said.
In preparation for the island’s re-development, Mr. Sarrosa said they will relocate the people who are now occupying their property.
Four people’s organizations on the island, with the support of the Panay Rural Organizing for Reform and Social Order (PROGRESO), Inc., are opposing this move.
Lirio M. Cordova, executive director of PROGRESO, said they were closely working with the Buaya Farmers and Fisherfolk Association, Alipata Small Farmers and Fisherfolks Association, Asosasyon sang Mangunguma kang Mananagat sa San Fernando and Federation of Sicogon Farmers and Fisherfolks Association in ensuring that the people are not displaced.
Mr. Sarrosa, for his part, said they planned to tap Gawad Kalinga for the relocation project.
“These are our people. For many years, we did not charge them at all for living on our property. But we have to relocate them, especially now that there are many interested parties,” Mr. Sarrosa said.
The Sarrosa family purchased the island from the family of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo in the ’70s and established an exclusive membership club that was later opened to Europeans and other tourists.
Based on clippings provided by Daphne Haour-Hidalgo, former manager of Sicogon Development’s management information center, the club had 120 native cottages, a clubhouse, swimming pool, tennis courts and a seven-kilometer white sandy beach.
The island also had a 1,200-meter air strip and a boating and fishing lagoon. At the height of the resort’s operations in the ’80s, charter airline Air Mindanao operated regular flights to the island.
CEBU/ILOILO — The Sarrosa family of Western Visayas is talking with foreign investors who are interested in forming a joint venture that will re-develop Sicogon Island into a tourist destination that could rival Boracay. Continue Reading »
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