Research Title: The Struggles in Paradise:

An Account of the Ati Community of Boracay Island Through the Years

1.

2. Proponents
a) Name: JV Corillo, Danny Dy Quioyo and Mario Miguel Perez

b) Major Field(s) of Interest: Political Science, Social Science and History.

c) Address: Sambag, Jaro, Iloilo City / Sibalom, Antique / Roxas City,

Capiz

d) Email and Contact Number: 09555405211 / 09978677275 /

09489644104

3. Key Words: Boracay Island, Indigenous people, experiences, ati community

4. Objectives:
1.1 Identify the struggles faced by the Ati community through the

years.

1.2 Take into account the measures undertaken by the Ati

community in order to get through these struggles that beset

them.

1.3 Look into the challenges that hinder the development of the

goals they want to fulfil.

5. Expected Output:
The researchers aims to address the outputs objectives and goals as
well as to gain sufficient insight as to what is currently happening to the
ati community of boracay island over the years of the island development
both econimically and socially. The researchers also expects that this
output will provide awareness to people not only in the island but rather
everyone who advocates for the welfare of indigenous people and the
like.

6. Background:
Today we are witnessing unevenness in the historical progress of

humankind both in time and through space. While for some, progress remains
virtually transfixed, others move on. In both cases, conditions are largely

determined by the nature of their surrounding sociopolitical environments.

The truth of this is readily apparent when we compare the Ati to the society

at large. The Ati are not only distinguished as a “cultural minority” or a

“cultural community” but are also different from other Filipinos racially. In the

country as a whole, about twelve million people correspond to about 110

indigenous cultural communities (ICCs). These are scattered in small

communities, mostly in upland areas, in different locations around the

archipelago (Baruah, 2000).

The continuous commercialization of Boracay Island has forced the Ati

to leave their home and live a nomadic lifestyle and asking for alms in the

busy streets or on the beaches. Even though they have been given land and

are able to establish their own community the struggles they had endured to

have come this far to achieve their dream still lingers in their consciousness

for years to come (Angan, 2013).

In 1987, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (Republic Act No. 8371)

was passed and it expressly recognized the indigenous concept of ownership,

which is made the basis for the rights of the Indigenous Cultural Communities

(ICCs) or Indigenous Peoples to claim the ancestral domains (Chapter III,

Section 7) and ancestral lands (Chapter III, Section 8). The government can

award ancestral domain titles to indigenous communities that can prove

continuous habitation and resource use of territory since time immemorial

(Ramiscal, 2013).

The native title allows organized indigenous groups to cohabit and

control the use of their land, and in some cases, ancestral waters. Under the

Act, the indigenes’ concept of ownership “sustains the views that ancestral

(domains/lands) and all resources found therein shall serve as the material

bases of their cultural integrity. The concept generally holds that ancestral

domains are the ICCs’/Ips’ private but community property which belongs to

all generations and therefore cannot be sold, disposed or destroyed” Chapter

III, sec. 5 (Ramiscal, 2013).

7. Review of Literature:

(1) Kalibo Sto. Ni Ati-atihan Festival and the Cultural Heritage of the

Ati; (2) Tourism Mobilities, Indigenous Claims, and the Securitization of the

Beach; (3) A Forgotten People: The Ati Community of Aklan; (4) Summary.

Part One, Kalibo Sto. Ni Ati-atihan Festival and the Cultural Heritage of

the Ati, discusses the preservation of the Ati’s cultural heritage and the

pursuit of the survival of their cultural identity and the necessary conditions to

secure it.

Part Two, Tourism Mobilities, Indigenous Claims, and the Securitization of

the Beach, presents the effects of modern tourist mobility on the local and

indigenous people.

Part Three, A Forgotten People: The Ati Community of Aklan, states the

unevenness in historical progress of humankind both in time and space.

Which shows the Ati as an example when compared to the society at large.

8. Work Plan:
1st Quarter/ July 2nd Quarter/ 3rd Quarter/ 4th Quarter/
August September October
Finish Chapters Start Chapter 3 Conduct research Finalizing,
1-2 and collecting study and transcribing the
research methodology final output
materials and
gathering of
permits