By Gil deloss Santos
It's just WRONG to hear or read narratives conveying that Boracay's first inhabitants are the ATI Tribe nor the Panay Bukidnon.
The only official government document available online that provides information about Boracay IPs is the NCIP's CADT award in favor of BATO (Boracay Ati Tribal Organization).
President Noynoy gave the Boracay Atis dignity by giving them a formal dwelling in 2010. But history tells that they are not the first inhabitants of the island.
They were nomads passing through Boracay finding for sustenance.
Before they first stepped on the island, Boracaynons were already in Boracay.
This account is not only by assumption nor by a theory. They are facts handed down to us, born Boracaynons.
My great grandparents were born in Boracay before the 1900s, my father in 1939.
The Ati’s nomadic lifestyle was disrupted when Boracaynon locals began employing them as laborers.
I remember one of my grandfathers employed them as rice plantation workers with others as hollowblocks maker.
With Panay Bukidnons, it was never heard until 2018 when Duterte's government started claiming public lands.
The blogs available online becomes a reference for people seeking information about Boracay.
Let’s correct the narrative.
The ATIs nor the Panay Bukidnons are NOT the first inhabitants of Boracay. IT WAS BORACAYNONS.
What are the facts?
1) Since 2018, efforts of the claiming Panay Bukidnons' NCIP recognition remains on a sleeping status because they can't qualify as an IP community.
Here's why, click link:
2) BATO or the Boracay Ati has been given with a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) under the mercy of President Aquino in 2010 through her sister's affinity with the Daughters of Charity congregation who now handles or supervises the Ati community in Boracay.
Photo:
My parents' humble resort in 1983
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