BORACAY Island, Malay, Aklan—A pall of gloom has descended on the island of Boracay, as residents, business owners, workers and vendors grimly count the days to the closure of their beloved home, many of them uncertain of their future.
Manny Casidsid, president of the Masboi Paraw Association, told the BusinessMirror many of the association’s 639 members are still at a loss on what to do after the island is closed on April 26. “Meron nag-iisip pumunta ng Manila, para maghanap ng trabaho [Some are thinking of going to Manila, to look for work],” he said.
He added the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has already approached the association members for the agency’s promised cash-for-work program, but pointed out that the daily minimum wage that will be paid the workers, will hardly be enough to support the needs of their families.
Because they are in Western Visayas, they will be paid a minimum wage of only P268 per day, and not the P325 a day, the government has announced. He noted this was much lower than the P300 to P600 a day the paraw sailors actually earn from taking tourists on a cruise around the island.
“Sa P268 a day, babayahe pa kami araw-araw mula Caticlan papuntang Boracay, P100 na ’yon. So magkano na lang take-home namin sa pamilya? P168 na lang. Anong mapakain namin sa aming pamilya sa P168 lang? Tapos pasukan na sa June. [At P268 a day, we have to pay P100 for the transportation from Caticlan to Boracay. How much do we take home to our families? Just P168. How can we feed our families with P168? Then June is approaching, it’s school opening],” he lamented.
He said his members were told they could be hired to clean up Boracay and help with the demolition of properties found to be violating laws. “Sabi nila i-training kami sa Tesda sa driving, sa welding. Okay lang ‘yun basta subsidize nila pangangailangan ng pamilya namin. [They said they would train us at Tesda in driving, welding. That’s okay as long as they subsidize the needs of our families],” Casidsid stressed. Tesda is the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, a government agency tasked to train interested participants in vocational work.
The paraw sailor was among the 150 stakeholders who attended the government workshop conference on Tuesday at Savoy Hotel, Newcoast City, which was earlier said to be “by invitation only.” However, interested stakeholders did manage to get into the venue and took their seats to listen to government agencies roll out their plans for Boracay’s closure from April 26 to October 26.
Many noted, however, that there was no effort from the government to reach out to all those impacted by the closure of island, to invite them to come to the workshop. “They didn’t even tell the resort owners. Many had to find out about it through the grapevine,” said one workshop participant. “They held the meeting at Savoy, so it would be difficult for the rest of the stakeholders to get to,” she added.
A number of them also complained of being at the venue at 8 a.m., “as we were told to do so,” but the workshop actually started two hours later, as organizers waited for the government panelists. Participants noted earlier in the day that there were no high-ranking government officials who attended the workshop, until toward the event’s end, when Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. put in an appearance with officials of the Department of Tourism and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Meanwhile, Rowen Aguirre, executive assistant of the Malay local government, who was first among the government panelists to make his presentation of action plans, warned of the social impact of the six month closure, which would affect some 80,000 stakeholders on the island. In a “worst case scenario,” he said, the closure could lead to “mental- health problems, health diseases, tension at home, political issues, crime and violence, suicide cases, stigma, [lower] standard of living, loss of skills’ usage and school dropouts.”
He noted that the local government unit (LGU) has already “validated one documented case of depression in one single mother with three kids, who lost her means of livelihood, and her house was demolished.”
He underscored the need for the LGU to conduct regular “stress debriefing” of affected workers and residents on the island, to prevent possible emotional or mental-health breakdowns.
As per the Malay LGU, 385 households have been told to vacate their homes, which are located in no-build zones such as forestry land, wetlands, among others.
When asked what he would do when Boracay closes in eight days, Bradder, an ambulant vendor of pearls from Mindanao said, “di ko pa alam. [I still don’t know what to do].” For many in Boracay’s informal sector like Bradder and Casidsid, one thing’s sure: Life as they know it, will never be the same again.
Image credits: Stella Arnaldo