DENR seeks new agency to manage Boracay

BORACAY, Philippines — Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu proposed yesterday the creation of a new agency that would permanently manage the world-famous Boracay Island.

Cimatu said he would ask Congress to pass legislation to establish the new body that would be called the Boracay Island Development Authority (BIDA) and would replace the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) that is set to be dissolved in May 2020.

“Under the proposal, the Boracay Island Development Authority or BIDA will be an attached agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) since environmental sustainability will be its main concern,” said Cimatu who is also concurrent chair of the BIATF.

He said that for the meantime, the DENR might request President Duterte to extend Executive Order (EO) 53 that created the BIATF.

On May 8, 2018, Duterte issued EO 53 creating the BIATF and designating Cimatu as chairman. The EO provides that the BIATF shall be deemed dissolved two years after its creation.

The BIATF said the agency continues to make steady progress in its effort to rehabilitate Boracay.

Duterte ordered the closure of Boracay to tourists on April 26, 2018 to give way to the six-month rehabilitation of the polluted and overcrowded island. The island reopened on Oct. 26, 2018 with stricter regulations on the use of its famous white beach and the entry of tourists.             

Natividad Bernardino, general manager of the Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group, said the rehabilitation is right on schedule for completion by May 2020, in time for the expiration of BIATF.

“We are on track and if everything goes smoothly, all our targets for the two-year rehabilitation program will be met by the time the task force is dissolved,” Bernardino said.

In her presentation before the BIATF alternate members recently in Boracay, Bernardino reported that 67 percent of the 339 commercial and residential structures along the beachfront are already compliant with the 25+5-meter shoreline easement rule.

Bernardino also reported that the island’s maximum carrying capacity of 19,215 tourists at any given time has been strictly observed.

She said the average number of tourist arrivals from October 2018 to November 2019 was 5,639 per day.

The rehabilitation of the main road on the island is expected to be completed by yearend and other roads by April or May 2020, she said.

Bernardino said the delay in the total rehabilitation of Boracay was caused by the continued infrastructure projects and the big number of workers who stay in boarding houses on the island, which has aggravated overcrowding in the area.

“The biggest problem we still have right now and even after the two-year rehabilitation is decongesting the island,” Bernardino said.