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BY BOY RYAN ZABAL
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Thursday, March 15, 2018
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KALIBO, Aklan – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) is urging President Rodrigo Duterte not to shut down the island of Boracay.
The SP approved a resolution asking the President to reconsider his closure threat and allow business transactions to happen in the popular beach destination while environmental rehabilitation measures are conducted.
SP member Esel Flores authored Resolution No. 2018-717, which welcomed Duterte’s pronouncements as a timely warning to all stakeholders in Boracay.
“Ongoing efforts to restore the island can still be done effectively while Boracay Island remains open for economic and tourism activities,” Flores said.
Flores cited in the resolution that the island contributed P55-billion tourism receipts to the national government as it catered to more than one million foreigners last year.
She added that the three barangays in the island – Yapak, Manoc-Manoc and Balabag – generated local revenues which contributed to the drop in the poverty incidence of Aklan, from 45 percent in 2009 to 15 percent in 2015.
Flores also stressed that around 18,000 registered workers, not including those in the “informal economy,” will be displaced if the plan to close Boracay pushes through.
Duterte on Feb. 9 threatened to close Boracay to tourists and tasked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Interior and Local Government to solve the island’s woes within six months.
Massive crackdown on business establishments not following sanitary and zoning laws in the island followed the President’s threat.
The popular viewing deck of the West Cove resort owned by Crisostomo “Cris” Aquino was among those that have been demolished.
Local labor groups in Western Visayas earlier lobbied against the Boracay’s closure, saying that it will aggravate thousands of workers.
Last week, Duterte announced that he would place the island under a state of calamity to pave way for its rehabilitation. (Aklan Forum Journal/PN)
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