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BY HERBERT VEGO
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THERE was no fun in my last visit to Boracay, not with more new buildings still rising along narrow roads. Those trappings of “progress,” ironically, do not prove that the local government of Malay, Aklan is serious in its vow to regain the image of the island as an eco-friendly tourist destination.
The sight was worse than what prompted me to raise the alarm three years ago when congested population and infrastructure in the island was already rearing the ugly head of poor development planning. In fact, I wrote in this corner that widening the main two-lane roads could no longer be done without wrecking hotels, restaurants and other business establishments on both sides.
In my last visit, I again watched aghast as a long carpet of green algae covered the shoreline. Obviously, no concrete steps had yet been done to eradicate it. I wonder whether negligence had something to do with the initial reaction of the regional office of the Department of Tourism (DOT) pacifying tourists vis-a-vis the seasonal algal bloom – that it was keeping Boracay’s sand white and cool.
I am more inclined to believe Regional Director Jim Sampulna of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), who is now convinced that, since algae is attracted to untreated wastewater, it is possible that some establishments and residences might be dumping wastewater into the sea.
Learning that, DOT Regional Director Helen Catalbas of the Department of Tourism backtracked with a message to Sampulna, saying, “The results of your study will be my documents in discussing with the stakeholders in campaigning to save Boracay from greedy practices, hence prevent ecological imbalance.”
Then, too, according to a news report filed for the Manila Bulletin by Tara Yap two years ago, a group of environmentalists known as Last Stand for Paradise (LSP) sought the help of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who heads the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, to buy 17 hectares of Boracay forestland for preservation purposes. Otherwise, a Taiwanese developer would buy it at a cost of P1.7 billion for conversion into a commercial hub. Nothing else has been heard from the LSP since then.
Fellow journalist Ricardo Octavio Jr. and this writer also tried to interview the then mayor of Malay, John Yap, for whatever step he was taking to save Boracay while he was resting in his Casa Pilar. But his bodyguards would not let us in.
Only in March this year, another whiff of “save Boracay” attempt filled the radio airwaves – this time coming from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), pledging to help the local government of Malay (now under Mayor Ciceron Cawaling) control the excessive algae on the white-sand shores with the use of an eco-friendly septic system. The report said that DOST’s provincial head Jairus Lachica had coordinated with Dr. Melinda Palencia, an environmentalist and professor from Adamson University, to supply the island with her invention known as “vigormin.” It’s a white powdery substance that goes with an eco-friendly septic system. The system had already been experimented in small scale in Boracay but is now widely used in Palawan and Bohol.
Why am I recalling the above train of events? Well, it mirrors the failure of government authorities to prioritize environmental concerns over crass commercialism.
Unfortunately, while hoteliers and restaurateurs in Boracay acknowledge the gradual degradation of Boracay that could spell its eventual demise as tourist hub, they don’t really care. They have prepared for it another way – by building new hotels and restaurants in emerging resorts in other provinces, notably Bohol and Palawan. Ouch!
Sarabia Jewelry’s lead designer Regine Sarabia Espinosa is now crafting a new crown for the forthcoming Miss Dinagyang 2018. For that, she signed a memorandum of agreement yesterday with Alex Soncio, executive director of the Miss Iloilo Dinagyang 2018. More on this in another column later. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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