“The Riviera of the Middle East.” That’s what US President Donald Trump envisions for war-torn Gaza. Last week, he even posted an AI video of the “Trump Gaza” wherein the Gaza strip has become a world-class beach resort. Seen lounging at the beach are Trump and Netanyahu and in a nearby Casino, Elon Musk tries out a sumptuous meal. Immediately, reaction from netizens worldwide was fast and furious, condemning the latest Trump gimmick and its tone-deaf message specially to suffering Palestinians. But the question is as a tourist would you go to Trump’s Gaza and enjoy its white beach and its world-class tourist amenities, knowing that more than forty thousand were killed there, including tens of thousands of children?
To a lesser extent, that is already happening in the Philippines. In pursuit of tourism development, the conversion of our forests and natural resources into resorts and tourist attractions has accelerated. There certainly is a lot of money from tourism. Last January, for example, Department of Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco reported that in 2024, the sector’s revenue reached an all-time-high of P760 billion, which is a 9.04 percent increase from its revenue in 2023. Proudly, the Secretary said, this constitutes an 8.6 percent contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). More importantly, she added, the sector is now providing employment directly and indirectly to 16 million Filipinos. With this very rosy picture, any business enterprise would surely want a piece of the pie. And so predictably, big corporations are scrambling to join the fray. The Philippine Statistics Authority reports that in 2020, 40,815 business establishments engaged in various tourism activities, from food and beverage to accommodation, sport and recreational, transport, and other services. Hotels and resorts are still dominated by longtime international actors such as Ascott International, Baymont Inn and Suites and Crown Regency Hotels and Resorts. But hurriedly catching up are local competitors like Ayala and SMDC. Indeed, the competition among these local real estate development corporations has been heating up in recent years. From Batangas and Tagaytay to Rizal, Quezon, Bohol, and Palawan, there is a mad rush for the development of first-class resorts in relatively pristine forests or seafronts.
But there’s the rub. How sure are we that this gold rush in tourism is above board? Not to be a party-pooper but is the economic growth model around these developments in tourism sustainable and inclusive? Already, environmental red flags are being raised in some tourism projects. Remember the private resort built among the Chocolate Hills of Bohol? For a while, “eco-tourism” became a fad among tourist enthusiasts, but environmentalists are the first to tell you the concept has been applied inconsistently by the sector itself. But apart from the environmental issue, an urgent concern is that the development rush in the tourism industry is encroaching on ancestral domain territories and therefore displacing indigenous peoples communities yet again. The country’s total land area is estimated at 30 million hectares and one third of that is supposedly ancestral domain, that is, territories long inhabited by the now 15 million-strong tribal communities. The 1987 Constitution has early on recognized their rights to these territories. These rights were further protected in 1997 when the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) was passed by Congress. And yet like many of our laws, IPRA has been honored in the breach. IPRA for example provides a mechanism in which these Ancestral Domain titles can be granted to indigenous peoples communities. But in 2023, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples admits that it has only approved 257 of claims and from these only 55 or 22 percent have been fully processed; 202 remain pending at the Land Registration Authority. Admittedly, time is running out on the indigenous people’s Ancestral Domain claims especially in the face of aggressive business interests challenging these claims.
Such for example is the story unfolding in the Municipality of Bugsuk in Palawan. In 1974, at the height of Martial Law, Marcos ally Danding Cojuangco descended upon the area and appropriated for himself land that belonged to several tribal communities who had already existed there for hundreds of years. He went into coconut farming and of course the now famous Jewelmer Pearl farm. Displaced were thousands of families from their ancestral domain. After EDSA 1986, and with the new dispensation, the tribal groups began the painful process of reclaiming what was theirs. To no avail. San Miguel Corporation now claims ownership of their ancestral land. Last year, the Department of Agrarian Reform rescinded an order from the time of the Aquino Administration that covered their lands under CARP. Worse, their very status as the rightful indigenous community there has been questioned by the NCIP itself. They were offered hefty amounts to vacate the island and when that didn’t work, a militia group suddenly appeared and threatened violence if they did not leave soon. While the tribal leaders hopelessly seek help here in Manila, SMC’s plan to convert the area into the next paradise resort continues.
This story will not be an isolated case. As government and business continue to sidestep the Constitution and our laws in the name of economic progress, the ancestral domain territories will expectedly whittle down. In their place, hotels and resorts would rise. But will you vacation there knowing they were built on the suffering of the innocent and the voiceless? Surely, that will not be fun!
Fr. EMMANUEL “NONO” L. ALFONSO, SJ, is Executive Director of Jesuit Communications, writer and TV and radio host at ABS-CBN (Channel 2), DZMM Teleradyo, Radio Veritas and Radyo Katipunan. In 2008, he was given a Special Citation Award for Best Opinion Column Category at the 30th Catholic Mass Media Awards.
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