THREATENED by a possible closure of the island, as well as administrative sanctions against local government officials, the Malay municipal government will be suspending all building construction on Boracay Island from March to December this year.
This activity was contained in the six-month action plan presented by the Malay government, headed by Mayor Ciceron Cawaling, to island stakeholders during a meeting at the EcoVillage Convention Center on Tuesday.
This developed as Interior Assistant Secretary for Plans and Progams Epimaco V. Densing III told ANC’s Beyond Politics on Tuesday that the task force on Boracay is leaning toward recommending to President Duterte a closure of the island for 60 days. “[Interior] Secretary [Eduardo M.] Año agrees on a closure. [Tourism] Secretary [Wanda Corazon T.] Teo was also supportive [of a closure]. [Environment] Secretary [Roy A.] Cimatu still has questions, and is playing Devil’s Advocate, asking ‘what ifs’?” Densing said.
Densing underscored that the closure of Boracay would be “temporary,” adding that it is not the first time a major destination had to be closed down to allow it to regenerate. He pointed to the closure of Koh Tachai off the Phuket coast, in 2016, as a template for Boracay’s closure. The Thai government closed the island, as well as three other islands in 2016 to rehabilitate it. These were only reopened in 2017. He also noted that Mount Apo was temporarily closed from 2016 to 2017 to allow it to regenerate. The area had been closed to trekkers after a fire razed portions of the mountain in April 2016.
“How long it [Boracay] will be closed is up to the President,” he said. If a closure is decided, the DILG official said Teo asked for lead time so the Department of Tourism (DOT) could advise tour operators and travel agencies to “reroute” tourists to other destinations.
He also said plans are being drawn up to involve the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Trade and Industry to extend “bridge financing while the island is closed.” The funds, however, will only be given to the small business owners and poor residents who rely on tourism for sustenance.
Meanwhile, the Malay government’s six-month action plan, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror, showed it will pursue the crafting of a tourism master plan by architect Jun Palafox and associates, which is projected to be completed by July 2018. It will also conduct an “inventory of landowners and structures on Boracay Island,” which will take place between March and September 2018.
In addition, the LGU will “intensify the ID system as a means of in-migration control by ID coding.” According to the LGU, Boracay has a total land area of 1,064 hectares, with a current population of 56,444.
However, with an estimated 18,082 tourists a day (assuming a three-day/two-night stay), including some 17,330 registered foreign and local workers and about 11,300 unregistered workers, the total number of people on the island reaches 103,143 daily. The DOT has said the “carrying capacity” of the island is for only 50,000.
The LGU also plans to revive the materials-recovery facilities in each of its three barangays, the privation of garbage-collection operators and “the privatization of new cell construction and operations of a sanitary landfill.” All these are projected to be completed within six months. There is no sanitary landfill on Boracay island; after trash is collected, these are dumped in a central MRF, then shipped to mainland Malay, which has a sanitary landfill.
The Mayor’s office is also planning to demolish illegal structures, file cases against violators and close businesses, which have no business permits. Other projects include the phaseout of tricycle units, implementation of a new traffic plan and continuous apprehension of illegal vehicles. The traffic jam in central Boracay has been a subject of complaints, not only by local residents and business owners, but by tourists, as well. Even a typical 15-minute ride from end-to-end of the island, will likely take more than 30 minutes, due to the burgeoning number of vehicles and the rising population.
Año has said administrative sanctions would be filed against local and national government officials who had abetted the violations of environmental and easement rules by resorts and other establishments on the popular resort island.
‘Not too late to save Boracay’
DENR Undersecretary for Policy, Planning, International Affairs and Foreign-Assisted Projects Jonas R. Leones told the BusinessMirror that there will be no letup in the crackdown against erring resort owners in Boracay to ensure President Duterte’s six-month deadline to fix the environmental problems on the island will be met.
Leones, Cimatu’s spokesman, said it’s not too late to save Boracay, but it will require the cooperation of all the stakeholders on the island known for its white-sand beaches and pristine waters.
He said the DENR and the DOT will allow establishments to dismantle illegally built structures.
He said the 30-meter easement rule from the shorelines is the least of the concern of the special Boracay task force led by Cimatu. “We are more concerned about the expansion of big hotels, because it will take time and will be costly.”
He said that, initially, the DENR is looking at spending P10 million for the massive mobilization of DENR personnel in Boracay alone.
“Because we have no demolition crew, we have to outsource it. But we are hoping that the hotel and big resort owners will cooperate and do the demolition voluntarily. Otherwise, we will have to shut down their establishment,” he said.
According to Leones, the DENR’s resort-to-resort inspection is still ongoing and closure of resorts that fail to institute corrective measures, particularly the discharge of wastewater, is inevitable.
The official said the task force is weighing various options in its effort to address the problem. “Personally, I believe that a moratorium is not enough. In other countries, stopping the operation for a period to fix the problem is needed.”
The Boracay task force, he added, is evaluating various recommendations, including declaring the entire island under a statement of calamity to speed up the
ongoing rehabilitation.
“Once a state of calamity is in effect, the rehabilitation will be faster,” he said.
Leones said that, from now on, the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) will ensure that every establishment built on the island, especially those near the shorelines, will comply with environmental laws, particularly on the discharge of wastewater, as prescribed by the Clean Water Act.
Aside from Boracay, the DENR has started the crackdown against similar violators in other well-known resorts, such as El Nido in Palawan and Puerto Galera in
Oriental Mindoro.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), through its Environment, Climate Change and Urban Development Committee led by Director in Charge Jose P. Leviste Jr., has expressed support to the initiatives of the DENR to clean up Boracay and other tourism destinations to ensure that all business establishments comply with environmental laws.
“There is no better time than now to prevent the steady degradation of our ecotourism destinations, and to preserve them as long-term assets to be enjoyed by Filipino and foreign tourists,” Leviste said. “Short-term thinking by violators in travel resorts are damaging the islands’ reputations as a tropical paradise.”
With Jonathan l. Mayuga
1 comment
its the disrespectful Filipino’s that degrade a trash everything