Island grabbing?

During the many years I spent in Palawan, I learned of the ways land was surveyed by government agencies, determining what was A&D or alienable & disposable, what was forested, grazing or pastureland or mineral-rich areas ideal for mining.

- CITO BELTRAN

The general practice back then was to apply for or pay for tax declaration for A&D land. That was how many individuals started the process of land acquisition. Many of them were local residents or government personnel given provincial assignments who knew or understood the system and used the knowledge to their benefit and advantage.

The smart and entrepreneurial individuals generally sold their imagined "rights" under the tax declaration while others leased out their "claimed property" to developers, leaving all the legal work to the lessee. To this date, the practice exists in many parts of the Philippines and not just in Palawan.

After a few years, the process progressed towards legalizing those claims by titling. This entailed having a land survey that legally documented the location, bearings and boundaries of the property being applied for titling. From tax declarations to survey to titling, the process could take a minimum of two years.

Back then the one scam that "land grabbers" resorted to was placing an application for tax declaration on top of an existing claim or a tax declaration for even titled land. This was done in cahoots with some corrupt official or a scam on top of a scam, where they offer property and processing to foreigners or city slickers.

Nowadays, the common practice, just like in the United States, is "squatting," "trespassing" or organized and funded occupation of properties in exchange for millions of pesos ransom. What I have not heard of until two weeks ago is "island grabbing" or "tribal eviction by claim."