Hundreds of commercial and residential structures and institutional buildings along Boracay’s main roads are facing demolition as Task Force Boracay starts the rehabilitation of the Philippines’s top tourist destination.
A total of 679 commercial, residential and institutional structures were found by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to have encroached within the 12-meter road-easement rule. A DENR official said the owners of these structures would be asked to institute corrective measures or do “self-demolition.”
Of the figure, 393 are commercial, while the rest are classified either as commercial/residential, residential, and a few institutional buildings, such as churches
and schools.
Task Force Boracay will undertake massive clearing and road-widening activities on the island’s three barangays—Manoc-Manoc, Balabag and Yapak—to partly reclaim the roads from illegally built structures to ease traffic congestion.
The violations on both sides of the road are mostly “petty,” with fences, signages, gates encroaching portions of the roads. But these are aggravating the already problematic traffic situation on an island visited by tens of thousands of local and foreign tourists all-year round.
DENR Undersecretary Jonas R. Leones said a road rehabilitation and widening project will be undertaken, and that four of the “missing” wetlands will be reclaimed to address the perennial flooding problem on the island.
“Wetlands are very important because they are catch basins that prevent flooding. So we need to recover the wetlands and improve road conditions,” said Leones, the designated spokesman of Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu.
The clearing of the roads on the island is part of Task Force Boracay’s priority action plan.
Small hotels and resorts, restaurants, fast food and eateries, grocery stories, wholesale and retail stores, schools and churches will be affected by the road-clearing operation. The Boracay Water Services Inc. and Boracay Tubi, the two private water service providers on the island, were also on the list.
In Barangay Manoc-Manoc, among the violators is a Catholic church whose fence encroached a portion of the barangay road.
A pumping station and a lift station of Boracay Water were also included in the list of violators. Crown Regency-Boracay’s billboard and entrance signage in Barangay Manoc-Manoc will also be removed.
In Barangay Balabag, among those identified as violators are the Boracay Holiday Resort owned by one Lazarina Tirol-Molo, 7b Fiesta One Stop Souvenir, Azalea Hotel Residence Boracay, Malay Rural Health Office and the Lagoon Resort.
Many of those notified of their violations have voluntarily demolished their structures, but still, a lot of violators continue to defy the task force’s plea to institute corrective measures.
‘No sacred cows’
Leones told the BusinessMirror that there will be no sacred cows in the on-going crackdown on violators in Boracay Island. “Violators will be slapped with fines or penalties.”
This after Cimatu issued a stern warning against defiant businessmen and property owners who continue to ignore the DENR’s warning.
He noted that it has been two months since the DENR, a member of the task force, had issued notices of violations, for which the former Armed Forces chief of staff vowed “to hold them responsible and make them pay” for their violations.
Leones said the DENR will not be selective in enforcing what needs to be done to address the many environmental problems besetting the country’s top tourist destination in Malay, Aklan Province.
“There will be no sacred cows. If they committed a violation, then we will have to file necessary charges and impose penalty or fines for every violation,” he said.
Of the environmental violations found by the DENR, the most serious is the illegal discharge of untreated wastewater, which is prohibited under the Clean Water Act. Under the law, fines for violating the Clean Water Act range from P10,000 to P200,000 per day, depending on the gravity of the violation. Imposing fines or penalties for violation of environmental laws is determined by the Pollution Adjudication Board.
According to latest DENR figures, a total of 958 forestland and wetland occupants have been issued show-cause orders, and about 30 percent or 300 of them have been issued notices to vacate for failing to justify their presence in the supposed “no-build” zones.
A total of 115 firms and individuals with properties within the 25+5 shoreline-easement rule were also issued notices to vacate the premises.
The inspection of every resort on the island is still ongoing to determine which among them are discharging untreated wastewater.
Leones said the task force intends, at the minimum, to fix three major problems while the island is closed to tourists.
“First, we want to fix the sewer lines to prevent the discharge of untreated wastewater directly into the beach and other water bodies. We really want to remove the cesspool tag as ordered by the President. Second, address the worsening solid-waste management problem and prevent air, water and soil pollution, and the illegal construction of business establishments, including informal settler families in forestland, wetlands and along the roads on the island,” he said.
Image credits: AP