THE top official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Mimaropa region is seeking an additional fund of P10 million to step up the rehabilitation of tourist spots in El Nido, Palawan.
Mimaropa, which stands for Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan, is home to a number of ecotourism sites, including the world-renowned El Nido.
Mimaropa Regional Executive Director Henry Adornado said the P10-million funding is necessary to boost the DENR’s logistics to strictly enforce various environmental laws.
“We’ve already asked for an additional funding of P10 million and we are hoping that it will be approved for us to sustain our effort,” Adornado told the BusinessMirror.
Also, Adornado, a former director of the DENR’s Ecosystems Research Development Bureau (ERDB) said they have appealed for funding support from the Department of Tourism (DOT) to conduct a comprehensive study that will determine El Nido’s biological carrying capacity.
He said the funding requirement for such is estimated to be P5 million.
The study will identify El Nido’s strength, as well as weakness and vulnerabilities as a tourist attraction, Adornado said.
Adornado supports the idea of placing El Nido under government control to effectively implement various programs and projects that will address environmental problems on the island paradise.
“[We] welcome the proposal to place El Nido under government control similar to what took place in Boracay,” Adornado, speaking in Filipino, told the BusinessMirror. He thinks Boracay was successful, because of the concerted effort of the DENR, DOT and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Compared to Boracay, however, El Nido is far cleaner and healthier in terms of the level of fecal coliform observed in its surrounding waters, he said. “Only the main beachfront in El Nido has poor water quality.”
He said the problem is in El Nido is manageable given the resources to conduct a resort-to-resort inspection, and island-to-island observation, which entails costs outside the DENR Mimaropa’s regular budget.