We asked around and we learned that the large property was originally owned by the late tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. He sold that property to San Miguel just before his passing in 2020 as part of his “estate planning” activities, we understand.
But then how did Cojuangco come to own that property?
Well, it goes back to the 1970s when some of the businessman’s other agricultural lands were declared as eligible for the government’s land reform program.
What many people tend to forget is that the government doesn’t simply seize agricultural land from wealthy landowners but compensates them at a fair price, as well.
So when some of Cojuangco’s plantations were put under land reform, instead of being compensated with cash, he asked government to pay him with idle, non-agricultural property in some far off place that he could develop in the distant future. That place is Bugsuk Island, which became the subject of a land swap deal between Cojuangco and the government.
In short, the government got Cojuangco’s agricultural property for land reform and compensated him with another property in a distant, undeveloped (and, back then nearly uninhabited) island.
Fast forward half a century later and San Miguel has announced plans to make Bugsuk Island into an eco-tourism resort and, naturally, the opposition to this project has begun to come out of the woodwork, including from supposed indigenous peoples which the company says are not even inhabitants of the island.
Note that most of the real inhabitants of Bugsuk are supportive of the eco-tourism plan, since it will provide them jobs and livelihood while preserving the location’s pristine beauty.
And naturally — to a large degree because it was given as compensation to Cojuangco back in the 1970s since it was not agricultural land — the government last year declared that the property was ineligible for land reform, contrary to the demands of some would-be claimants.
Prior to San Miguel’s move to make Bugsuk an eco-tourism site, the only other corporate presence on the island was an operation by Jewelmer which has a pearl farm that employs locals.
San Miguel chief Ramon Ang said Bugsuk —unlike other exclusive island resorts like Amanpulo or Balesin — will be a public tourist destination that will be open to the public, without the need for membership fees worth millions of pesos.
Sounds like a win-win solution for everyone.
Senior Reporter
