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BY JOHNNY NOVERA
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Tuesday, March 6, 2018
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BORACAY has been hogging the news on radio, TV and the newspapers since Feb. 9 with no less than President Rodrigo R. Duterte saying the resort island has become a cesspool and he threatened to close it if its sewerage and garbage problems cannot be addressed in six months’ time.
Apparently in panic, the five government departments involved in the resort’s operation – Tourism, Public Works, Interior and Local Government, Environment, and Justice – have started to take collective action to create a program called “Oplan Save Boracay” led by Tourism secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo.
Here are specific problems cited: “An inspection was done as led by the environment department and showed that over 60 barangay establishments, including five-star resorts, have been dumping untreated sewage into the waters off barangays Balabag, Manoc-Manoc and Yapak that comprise Boracay Island in the Municipality of Malay at Aklan Province.”
We felt concern for this negative news on the island because as late as Dec. 19, 2017 we came out with a column congratulating Boracay for having been declared the “Second Best Island in Asia” by Travel+Leisure Magazine as published in its 22nd annual list of July 2017.
Boracay got a score of 89.67 percent next to Palawan’s 93.15 percent. Bali in Indonesia scored 87.61 percent for the third spot; Panglao in Bohol landed fourth place with 87.37 percent.
Rounding up the top 10 were Maldives with 86.69 percent, fifth; Cebu, 86.48 percent, sixth; Phuket, Thailand, 84.13 percent, seventh; Luzon, 83.07 percent, eighth; Sri Lanka, 82.57 percent, ninth; and Koi Samui, Thailand, 82.43 percent, 10th.
As we have written, the ranking was based on a survey conducted by the magazine’s editors from Nov. 7, 2016 to March 6, 2017 covering four months.
We also related in our article that Boracay has become a premier cruise ship destination. As of Dec. 19, 2017 when we wrote our column, 13 cruise ships have visited Boracay for the year and brought in 17,000 tourists and 11,000 crew members. Three more were expected last December with 10,000 passengers and 4,000 crew members. And for 2018 our Department of Tourism revealed that 18 cruise ships have scheduled visits to Boracay with 50,000 tourists and 25,000 crew members.
Now we are glad that the local government unit (LGU) of Malay that has jurisdiction over Boracay Island has finally come up with its six-month cleanup plan and presented it before stakeholders.
There was a gathering of about 1,000 business owners, expatriates, residents and local officials on Tuesday last week (Feb. 27) at the Ecovillage Convention Center in Boracay to discuss the timetable in implementing it.
Part of the action plan was a moratorium on the construction of new buildings in the island with the LGU also vowing to continue demolishing illegal structures violating the 30-meter easement rule.
We are glad to note of the immediate response of business groups under the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Boracay Foundation, Inc., as well as individual stakeholders who pledged full support for the rehab programs.
Our senators likewise came to conduct public hearings on the Boracay issue led by Sen. Cynthia Villar of the Senate Environment Committee, assisted by Sen. Nancy Binay of the Tourism Committee and Sen. Loren Legarda of Finance. They concluded that if there will be closures of establishments it should apply only to violators of environmental laws.
Problems on the award-winning island? We are confident that they will be successfully resolved now with the prompt action from stakeholders to come up with the 6-month cleanup plan and henceforth hopefully do right by the environment.
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Historical Quote of the Week
“Iloilo was the first city outside Manila to have electricity, telephone, telegraph, railway, ice plant, automobile, and other modern conveniences.” (For comments or reactions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com/PN)
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