Callous
No sooner had Boracay reopened after a six-month closure for rehabilitation than some of the bad habits that helped force President Duterte to order its closure have reared their ugly heads again. And it is clear that plain and simple rehabilitation is not enough to maintain the beauty of Boracay. Strong arms and an iron will are needed more than anything else.
According to news reports, complete with incriminating video evidence, the very day after the reopening saw large amounts of trash littering the beachfronts and other places. Thank God a small army of local volunteers woke up early to gather all the trash that the first batch of returning visitors irresponsibly just threw anywhere.
It may seem heartening that the volunteers took it upon themselves to clean after the tourists who clearly appeared too callous to care about their own personal responsibilities. But how long do you think the volunteers can keep up with this damnable profligacy?
Remember that these people are what they are --volunteers. That means they are doing what they are doing only out of the goodness of their hearts. They are not getting paid anything for it. It is not their job. In other words, they are under no obligation to keep it up.
If circumstances arise that may require them to be somewhere else to do other things, they will drop the volunteer work and who knows if they can still find the time and the motivation to pick up from where they left off. And no one can take it against them if they just up and leave. Remember, they are just volunteers.
Now, it may very well be that the government can create a task force of paid workers who do nothing else but do what the volunteers are now doing --clean up after the irresponsible tourists. But such an initiative only reacts to a problem. It does not in any way address the problem itself.
The best way to solve the problem of indiscriminate throwing of trash is to strong-arm everyone, from tourists to residents, into making it their personal obligation to help keep the island clean. It must be driven into the heads of everyone who sets foot on the island and those who live on it that there will be hell to pay if they get caught.
And more than just scaring them with dire scenarios, there must be ample examples of what can happen to those caught, examples that must be brought before the public in graphic detail. A strong arm and an iron will are sometimes needed to make people understand when simple words fail.
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