BORACAY ISLAND, Malay, Aklan—Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu said he could not recommend a total closure of the island until the sewage problem is solved. “I gave Boracay Island Water Corp. one month to solve the sewage problem. If we close the island, we can’t monitor if the sewage system is working or not because there won’t be tourists and no hotels are operating,” he told reporters after a Senate hearing here.
This developed as leading property developer DMCI was named on Friday as having allegedly illegally constructed structures in a forest area in Boracay Island.
During the Senate hearing at the Paradise Garden Resort Convention Center here, Valentin T. Alabero, provincial environment and natural officer (Penro) for Aklan, revealed that Alta Vista de Boracay is built on a forestland which, under environmental rules, should be protected from any building or structure. Alta Vista is an all-suite resort in the forested hills of Barangay Yapak. The location also includes leisure homes sitting on 40,000 square meters.
He also revealed that the Seven Seas Hotel, D’Mall and Kingfisher Hotel are built on wetlands, which is supposed to be free from structures, as well. Seven Seas is an ongoing construction on Puka Beach, and has been the subject of several complaints by locals and tourism industry stakeholders. D’Mall is a popular site in central Boracay for retailers, bars and restaurants.
Alabero made the disclosures after Sen. Loren Legarda, chairman of the committee on finance, lashed out at officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for allowing the construction of resorts and structures in sensitive areas like wetlands and forestlands.
Legarda, a staunch environmental advocate, also took the DENR to task for allowing the construction of resorts in Boracay without environmental clearance certificates. Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, chairman of the committee on trade and industry, also declared that based on the information he had received, there were 173 establishments operating on the island without ECCs.
The senators also zeroed in on the Boracay West Cove Resort, which they said was already found to have already built illegal structures, but was still allowed to operate by the DENR and the local government of Malay.
This developed as Malay Mayor Ciceron Cawaling admitted that his office has “not issued a business permit” to Boracay West Cove. The DENR, on the other hand, said it had already canceled the forestland agreement for tourism purposes (FLATP) of Boracay West Cove in 2015. But DENR Regional Director Jim Sampulna said the owner of the resort has appealed the FLATP cancellation to the office of former President Benigno S. Aquino III. No action had been taken on the appeal of Boracay West Cove to this day and is pending in the office of President Duterte.
Meanwhile, Sen. Nancy Binay, chairman of the Committee on Tourism, told the BusinessMirror that she was not in favor of the closure of Boracay Island, as suggested by some national government agencies. “There are too many people who will be affected,” she said, referring to the number of people depending on tourism for their livelihood.
She also called the proposal of the Department of the Interior and Local Government to declare a “state of calamity” in Boracay as “masyadong exaggerated naman.” She added that “there are still other measures that can be taken to rehabilitate the island. Among these are reducing the number of tourists that come here, cutting the number of chartered flights [that bring in foreign tourists] to the island, and teaching the people how to properly segregate and manage their wastes.”
During the hearing, she also appealed to the Task Force Boracay, headed by Secretary Roy Cimatu, to not include the closure of island option in its recommendations to President Duterte. This was seconded by Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairman of the committee on environment and natural resources, who said it was better to close the establishments found violating environmental and easement laws, and keep the compliant establishments open. “We should reward the compliant ones and punish the violators,” Villar stressed.
Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo had said on Thursday that one of the recommendations being considered by the task force is to close the island for two months to allow the rehabilitation of Boracay. She had recommended to the task force that the closure, if ever that decision is made, would be done during the monsoon season, perhaps in June and July.
At the hearing, Cimatu said the waters on Bulabog Beach had exceeded the fecal coliform standard of 100 most probable number (MPN) per 100 milliliters based on recent tests by the DENR. Water-quality tests on February 13 showed the fecal coliform bacteria in Bulabog Beach reached 350 MPN, but the waters at main White Beach are “below standard,” meaning these waters are safe for swimming.
Image credits: Photo courtesy D.O.T.