Read the story of us, people of Sicogon, and how a big corporation’s tourism project is violating our human right to land, food, water and housing:
When Super-Typhoon Yolanda (International: Haiyan) struck our country in November 2013, the government assigned Ayala Land, one of the most powerful real estate corporations of the Philippines, to reconstruct our island and to rehabilitate us, about 1,500 farmer and fisherfolk households on Sicogon Island in Carles, Iloilo province.
But instead of helping us, Ayala formed a joint venture with the private company Sicogon Development Corporation (SIDECO), to realize SIDECO’s longstanding plan to convert the island into a high-end resort.
This corporate-led disaster response prevented humanitarian assistance from reaching us, forced us to give up our land rights claims and disrupted our livelihoods.
Ayala and SIDECO’s armed security guards prevented us from rebuilding our houses. They took advantage of our vulnerable situation and pushed us to accept either of two option: Either we take a onetime payment of 150,000 Pesos (about 2,850 USD), leave the island immediately and never return, or we take 10,000 Pesos (about 190 USD) and relocate on the mainland in Estancia, once they constructed new houses.
Many of us saw no other choice and took one of the two companies’ options. The remaining 785 families, who are members of our local organization “Federation of Sicogon Island Farmers and Fisherfolks Assosication” (FESIFFA), opted to stay but had to face sustained harassments and intimidations by their armed guards.
We barely survived through support of our relatives. Eventually, we were able to connect with a few engaged humanitarian organizations which provided badly needed relief goods.
After months of living in fear and hungry, many of us fled into the timberland area on the island, which we call “Freedom Land” and where emergency boats could finally deliver relief goods.
One year after Yolanda, we, FESIFFA members, were forced by high-level government officials to sign Compromise Framework Agreement (CFA) with Ayala and SIDECO. The agreement promised us small portions of land for our houses (30 hectares) and farms (40 hectares) on the island as well as livelihood support and and funds for housing and land development. In exchange, we had to give up all of our previously hard-won land claims and gains.
Until today, the agreement was not fulfilled.
Instead, Ayala and SIDECO built a port, an airport and two hotel facilities. To fill up their infinity pool, the corporation diverted the mountain spring, which served as our major source of household and drinking water for over 100 years, resulting in a severe water crisis for our communities. Ayala and SIDECO neither obtained a permit for the water diversion nor faced a penalty for the water grab.
Sicogon is a 1,163 hectare island, surrounded by crystal-clear water, white sand beaches and an evergreen forest. The island offers the more or less 6,000 residents of the three villages everything that they need for a sustainable livelihood: clean spring water, fertile agricultural land and rich fishing grounds. Thus, land titles and access to fishing grounds are the fundamental basis of our traditional livelihoods as farmers and fishers.
The tourism development project is violating our human right to land, food and water.
First: Since 1972, SIDECO holds a land title for about 70% (809 hectares) of the island. In 2004, 334.6 hectares of SIDECO’s landholding were designated under the Comprehensive National Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) as our agricultural land. Since then, SIDECO led an aggressive land rights dispute against us with countless physical, verbal and legal harassements. Just before we were able to receive our land titles, Typhoon Yolanda devastated our island in 2013 and our struggle for land re-started.
Ayala and SIDECO wanted to gain our agricultural land for their tourism development.
On the basis of the CFA, the government approved Ayala’s application for a conversion order of our agricultural land in February 2016, clearing the way for the tourism project. But the CFA was never fulfilled. So we wanted to claim again our land rights under the CARP and filed a petition for revocation of the granted conversion order in August 2017 .
Only in March 2019, the DAR’s secretary has finally issued at FESIFFA’s prodding a Cease and Desist Order (CDO) which temporarily stops any further development on Sicogon.
But our human rights are still being violated if the government continues to prolong the revocation of the conversion order and Ayala and SIDECO might totally evict us from our home.
Second: Already in 2007, we applied for free patents for 72 hectares of public land (Alienable and Disposable Land, A&D land) to secure our residential land, but the government has never processed our application. Instead, the government awarded 16 free patents to ‘dummies’ of Ayala and SIDECO in 2010, although they were unqualified for such as non-residents of Sicogon without proof of any possession on the island.
We are squatters of our own home. Early 1900, the Supreme Court already decided that parts of the A&D lands had to be allocated to us for our villages. That order has been ignored until today. When we questioned those awards, the government just moved the land boundaries on the official map and explained that there has never been any A&D land.
Only when the government delineates the public and private lands, revokes the false free patents and approves our application for free patents, we can secure our residential lands and live fearless on Sicogon.
Last: After Yolanda, many fled out of fear into the secure timberland area (282 hectares) where they built new houses. In fact, our application for a Community-based Forest Management Program (CFMP) to secure our houses in the timberland has not been processed since 2014. A previous application of SIDECO in 2010, under the “Adopt A Mountain Scheme” which would allow the corporation to control the forest for greening purposes, was first granted but then again revoked - due to our efforts -, as SIDECO’s official registration had already expired. Now, SIDECO plans with Ayala to get the timberland declared as a protected area so we have to be evicted again from our new houses.
“We people of Sicogon call on all the people in the world, including travelers, tourists and inverstors, to support us in securing our human right to land, food, water and housing. Add your name to our petition and be one with us in our struggle.”
SIGN HERE:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/community_petitions/Rodrigo_Duterte_Philippines_Stop_Ayalas_monster_tourism_on_Sicogon_Island_1/details/?fbclid=IwAR0Usmn7fS19OPpv9RJUyL4Si-0_VHTNCrEURZg0JyPsp1NwxTl6PhBsNbs
We urge the President of the Republic of the Philippines to take immediate actions to secure our land tenure and access to fishing grounds and to:
i) fast-forward the revocation of the conversion order,
ii) delineate public and private lands, and,
iii) to initiate an investigation of the human rights violations against us.
Stop Ayala's #monstertourism on Sicogon Island!
