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BY HERBERT VEGO
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FINALLY, for the first time, the highest official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) – at present Secretary Roy Cimatu – is giving special attention to the deterioration of the country’s prime tourist destination, what with his proposal to create a “national body” to manage Boracay Island instead of leaving its management to the local government.
As this column has repeatedly observed, some beach resorts and hotels thereat have been discharging their wastewater into the sea. As confirmed by the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), coliform bacteria levels thereat reach as high as 47,460 most probable number per 100 millimeters (mpn/ml). The safe level for swimming is 1,000 mpn/ml.
The most pressing problem of the so-called island paradise is its substandard road network that has not caught up with modernization. The roads are so narrow that drivers of four-wheel vehicles meeting from opposite directions have to drive really slow to avoid collision. Each rainfall results in flooding, exacerbated by the clogged drainage system. Flood water cascades directly the sea.
In effect, disappointed tourists who had hoped to explore the sea and island’s natural sceneries are compelled to stay within the confines of their hotels and lodging houses. Fortunately for the rich, five-star hotels with swimming pools and pseudo-natural amenities exist.
In compliance with Cimatu’s directive, Mayor Ciceron Cawaling of Malay (the mainland town to which Boracay belongs) has taken notice of the rising “mountain” of garbage and has sought the help of truck and truck and barge operators in moving most of it out of the island.
Boracay today is indistinguishable from what it used to be. I could not forget the first time Panay News founder Danny Fajardo and I sailed to Boracay in 1982 when the island was truly rustic. There was not a single concrete building lining the beach front. Spaced far between were a score of nipa huts and carinderias. The two-bedroom nipa hut we occupied for an overnight stay cost us twenty-five pesos only. Our amenities included a wood-fueled parilla on which to broil a plate of fish, a box of match and kerosene lamp. There was no electricity all over the island yet.
While resting in the cottage, we saw a group of native fishermen pushing their small boat ashore. We strolled over for whatever fish they had caught. We offered to buy a plate of still-jumping galunggong. Without haggling for a lower price, we paid them what they wanted: five pesos! That solved our lunch and dinner problems.
A native boatman told us that the place was where British actor Michael Caine and a group of Hollywood actors filmed the movie Too Late the Hero in 1968. I had seen that movie in Manila.
If he were to go back to Boracay, Michael Caine would not recognize the island (identified in the movie as New Hebrides island) for which he has written an entire chapter in his autobiography What’s it All About? In that book, he described the island as “the worst location” he had ever filmed a movie in.
The 27th chapter of the book described as a “dense jungle” where they were plagued by insects, thorns and very humid temperature. And so the cast had to occasionally go to Olongapo, Manila or any city for well-deserved breaks.
The “jungle” and “open fields” seen in the movie have given way to hundreds of commercial establishments, hotels and restaurants. The luxurious ones are affordable only to the rich and famous. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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