A DELAY in the reopening of Boracay became a real possibility after government officials on Monday failed to answer basic questions during a Senate hearing on the state’s rehabilitation and reopening plans for the island-resort.
Grilled by Sen. Nancy S. Binay, Undersecretary Epimaco V. Densing III of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said there was still no determined carrying capacity for Boracay, as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has yet to complete its study on the matter.
“The DENR said they would be submitting their report by May but recently they asked for more time to complete it,” Densing said. There were no high-ranking DENR officials who attended the hearing that was sponsored by the Senate Committee on Tourism, which Binay heads.
Meanwhile, tourism stakeholders have already started selling rooms in anticipation of the island’s reopening on October 26, and are working on their promotions and marketing plans. Contacted by the BusinessMirror, a sales and marketing officer of a popular resort on the island said: “We have started selling [rooms] for October 27, despite the absence of guidelines [from the Department of Tourism].”
But residents living in Boracay have also confirmed the widening of their main road is still ongoing. A person familiar with the matter said contractors informed people in Boracay that “the entire [road] project will take three to four years to complete. But they are rushing the road from Cagban [jetty port] to Balabag.”
At the Senate hearing, the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, for another, has said its drainage system will be completed by 2019. Tieza Chief Operating Officer Pocholo Paragas said they are syncing their project with the road project of the Department of Public Works and Highways, so they don’t have to dig up a finished road just to lay down their pipes.
“It will be done together,” Paragas said.
President Duterte ordered the closure of Boracay Island for six months starting on April 26 to give way to the government’s rehabilitation effort, after being shown dirt and other effluents passing through the drainage outfall and blackening Bulabog beach.
The said pipe is being extended farther away from the beachfront while illegal connections have been dismantled, according to Paragas.
Tourism Congress of the Philippines President Jose C. Clemente III told Binay—along with committee members Senators Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV and Antonio F. Trillanes—that the private sector is already preparing for the island’s reopening by laying down its promotions plans.
“As early as now, some of us in the private sector have already made the announcement to our clients and partners [that rooms are available] because we went on the statement of [DENR] Secretary [Roy A.] Cimatu [that Boracay would reopen on October 26],” Clemente said. “Definitely, there are promotional plans, and we’re working very closely with the Department of Tourism in regard to that.”
While acknowledging the tourism sector’s marketing effort, Binay pointed out the urgency of determining the carrying capacity of the island.
“The problem is, since we still don’t know what is the carrying capacity of the island, how many rooms are we going to sell in Boracay? In the first place, we still don’t know which among the resorts are compliant, and how many rooms will be available by October 26.”
Industry stakeholders had also brought up their confusion on what constituted “compliance” with government regulations after several agencies issued new memos and new instructions on requirements that establishments on the island have to submit anew before they will be allowed to open on October 26.
Peter Tay, Boracay Foundation Inc. board member, said they were told that “four or five” of their members in the DENR list were supposedly not compliant with government regulations. But based on their members’ inputs, he said, ”they were already compliant” and had submitted requirements to the relevant government agencies.
