5 of 9 wetlands in Boracay wiped out

MANILA, Philippines — Overdevelopment, corruption and failure to enforce environment laws by local officials have wiped out five of the nine wetlands in the world-famous Boracay, a Senate inquiry learned yesterday.

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu told the Senate committee on environment chaired by Sen. Cynthia Villar that many establishments, including a shopping mall and a number of resort hotels, as well as shelters have been built over the wetlands in the past several years.

This unchecked development led to frequent flooding and pollution in the area. There are about 400 hectares of wetlands – a source of food and livelihood – or nearly half of the 1,000-hec­tare Boracay.

“Nothing is done in Boracay without the knowledge of the local government… not a single nail or plywood used in the construction here is brought in without permission or knowledge,” Cimatu told the hearing held in Boracay.

Officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) earlier reported that 842 establishments on the island violated several laws, including the Clean Water Act of 2004 and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

Cimatu said many of the establishments that built structures or encroached on wetlands have neither environmental compliance certificates (ECCs) nor the other required DENR permits.

It took some scolding from Senators Loren Legarda, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Villar before Aklan Provincial and Environment and Natural Resources officer Valentin Talabero reluctantly identified some of the establishments that have covered up wetlands, including the Alta Vista de Boracay hotel, Kingfisher hotel and D’ Mall.

Aklan Rep. Carlito Marquez, whose district covers Boracay, named the Crown Regency Hotel as one violator that the DENR sued upon his appeal. But the hotel, he said, won by technicality after hotel owners argued that their establishment was built on forestland, not wetland.

“But we all know that forestlands are also considered as wetlands,” Legarda remarked. “All these have acquired business permits, BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), mayor’s permit but no ECC. Why are these blatant violations happening in our country?”

Zubiri pushed for the prosecution of national and local officials for allowing the establishments without permits and those violating environmental laws to proliferate in Boracay.

“No enforcement, corruption, overpopulation, destruction of the environment, profiteering, apathy, and greed… all found in this island and is happening in many other tourism areas of our country,” Zubiri pointed out.

Sen. Joel Villanueva told local officials that, “tourism that kills our waters is not worth it.”

Villar asked the DENR and the Department of Tourism (DOT) and other national agencies to step in, noting there are two water concessionaires in the island that apparently have not coordinated with each other to delineate their jurisdiction, leading to poor planning in the laying of pipes.

She also said one of the water concessionaires apparently does not have a waste treatment facility so that all the wastewater coming from its pipes are dumped into the sea untreated.

Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo said tourism has been devolved to the local government units since 1991 and that the DOT can only coordinate with LGUs and promote areas.

She pushed for the creation of the Boracay Development Authority to allow the national government to take charge of the area as nearly a third of the six million tourists in the country last year went to the island, generating P56 billion in revenues.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce Boracay appealed against the temporary closure of the island, saying the “finger-pointing should stop” and that all stakeholders should just move on.

Sen. Nancy Binay said the recipes for “ecological genocide” of the island are already present.

Earlier, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) served notices of closure to 300 establishments that failed to connect their sewers to the sewage system or have no proper wastewater disposal system. – Helen Flores, Emmanuel Tupas