Part Two
THE first time I went to Boracay Island was in the late-1980s. I remember riding a six-seater plane, which took off from Roxas City in Capiz, then landed 15 minutes later in some outback airstrip.
When I finally caught a glimpse of the famous white beach, I was stunned speechless. The sand was a creamy off-white color, with the texture almost of confectioner’s sugar. And I immediately wanted to dive straight into the cerulean water, which was clear to the bottom. But as the trip was totally unscheduled on our agenda, I wasn’t able to bring a swimsuit to change into.
There were hardly any resorts back then, so the white beach was quite expansive even at high tide, with coconut trees as far as the eye could see. Electricity was spotty, too; the establishments were powered mainly by generators. But the tourists then, mostly Caucasians from Europe burned to a bright lobster red from staying out too long in the sun, didn’t seem to mind.
They were only too glad to have found Boracay, which was still a secret even to most Filipinos, and get away from the wintry chill of their own homelands.
One could curl up with a good book while splayed out under the sun, or just play in the cool freshness of the sea. The shore was spotless— just cream on cream of small dunes shaped by the wind and the water—and, most of all, it was peaceful and quiet. It was,
as the foreigners dubbed it, a perfect paradise.
After that initial trip, I had gone to Boracay several more times with friends, families or colleagues from work to enjoy the world famous white sand beach. With each visit, however, I have noticed the worrisome changes that have taken place over the years, as the once-pristine island reaps more fame here and around the world.
Best beach in the world
TODAY, Boracay Island has become synonymous to the Philippines.
It is the focal point of most promotions undertaken by the Department of Tourism (DOT) here and abroad, such that it has become the primary destination of most foreign and local visitors. The DOT reports that about two million people visited Boracay last year, split almost in half between foreign and domestic travelers. This year, that number is expected to rise to 2.2 million.
The island has been recognized by influential foreign travel publications, such as Conde Nast (Best Island in the World for 2017, Reader’s Choice) and Travel + Leisure (World’s Best Island, 2012). Blogs like CNN Travel regularly puts Boracay among the Philippines’s or world’s best beaches. But this may not be for long; even though considered among the top beaches in the world: Its ranking is slowly slipping, overtaken by the far more pristine and unsullied resort islands in Palawan.
Boracay, of late, has become overpopulated, over-commercialized, with its own little traffic jams along the main road, has flooding issues and dirty sewage water seeping into the waters surrounding it. Development in Boracay in the early-1980s to the mid-1990s was gradual and predictably slow.
The 1997 Asian financial crisis may have eventually sparked the domestic tourism boom in Boracay that would push the island into an environmental tailspin. With the peso dropping to P43-mark to the dollar in mid-1998 from just P26.31 at the opening of the previous year, Filipinos shelved plans of vacationing abroad and, instead, started finding their way to resort island.
With accessibility comes the horde
DOMESTIC tourists flew directly to Caticlan, the gateway to Boracay, or via Roxas City or Iloilo, then made the four- to- six-hour travel by land along dusty roads to the Caticlan port, before braving a 30-minute pump boat ride to one’s resort of choice. It was like the gold rush in California which attracted tens of thousands of prospectors from across the United States and overseas, only in the Philippines’s case, it was a mad rush to discover the 4-kilometer crystalline white-sand beach of Boracay.
For another, accessibility to the island has improved. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s ambitious flagship project, the Strong Republic Nautical Highway, sought to connect the entire archipelago of the Philippines via buses accommodated on roll-on, roll-off sea transport. Launched in 2003, the project connected 17 cities, towns and islands, including Caticlan. Busloads of tourists have arrived, all eager to swim in the island’s cool clear waters.
From just one airline flying to Caticlan in 1996, almost all Philippine carriers, both legacy or low cost, now service Boracay. Some even fly as far as mainland China to bring in the tourists, landing at the Kalibo International Airport, with local tour operators ferrying them by air-conditioned buses to Caticlan. Even the road from Kalibo to the gateway to Boracay has been paved allowing tourists a short and painless ride.
So from just about a hundred or so rustic resorts and nipa hut accommodations in the early-1980s, there are now over 500 resorts established in Boracay by the DOT’s latest count. And I expect more to come as the municipality of Malay, which oversees the island, continues to approve more business permits to would-be resort owners.
An environment in distress
ALONG with the burgeoning number of resorts, and the rush of visitors most times of the year, Boracay Island has become less of the paradise it once was.
What was once a perfect white beach, barely marked by footprints in the sand, there are now overwhelming crowds most times of the year that resort owners say “there is no more low season in Boracay.” When locals rush back to Manila and other urban cities as the school season starts in June, the foreigners take their place. And they come from all over the world—even as far as Argentina, France or South Africa, according to DOT data.
The huge crowds and the burgeoning number of commercial establishments have distressed the environment.
Strings of slimy green algae during the summer season, when Boracay hits its peak number of visitors, are now a regular fixture on the beach. And no, the algae don’t help bleach the sand, no matter how many local businessmen try to spin this as a reason for its existence.
At the back of the island, in what is called Bulabog Beach, where activities like kite surfing, kite boarding, windsurfing and other water sports take place, the situation is even worse. The water toward the shore is a brownish muck as pipes drain out what appears to be fecal matter and untreated sewage waste.
To be continued
Image credits: Alysa Salen