#Save Boracay

It all started sometime in January this year when Boracay residents took the initiative to call attention to the flooding problem that their famous island resort usually was lately experiencing. Taking action on the reported flooding problem in Boracay, President Rodrigo Duterte sent an investigating team to look into what’s happening to our country’s premier tourist destination known to the world for its pristine blue waters and fine white sand.

An inter-agency team from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) conducted a swift investigation into the reported flooding problem in Boracay.

The inter-agency team later became a full-time Boracay Task Force led by their respective heads, namely, DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu, DOT Secretary Wanda Teo  and DILG acting” Secretary Eduardo Año. 

A month later, a fired up President Duterte described Boracay as “cesspool” based from what he had seen himself after getting the report from the inter-agency probe team. In his typical extemporaneous speech before a business forum held at Marco Polo Hotel, President Duterte declared: “I will close Boracay. Boracay is a cesspool.”

“During days when I was there, garbage was just 20 meters away from the beach. But you go into the water, it’s smelly. Smell of what? Shit…Because everything that goes out of Boracay… is destroying the environment of the Republic of the Philippines and creating a disaster,” the President angrily bewailed.

Right there and then, the President issued marching orders to Cimatu to clean up Boracay. “I’ll give you six months. Clean the goddamn thing,” the President told Cimatu.

Less than six months later, some 50,000 Boracay residents will find their island resort isolated from the rest of the world possibly for the next six months starting April 26.

Because this would mean preventing the entry of foreign and local tourists it would effectively close down business of establishments like hotels, motels, restaurants, souvenir shops, scuba diving and other tour operators thriving on Boracay’s tourist-drawing power.

The Boracay Task Force recommended the temporary shutdown of the entire island resort up to Oct. 27 this year. After consulting with the entire Cabinet members, President Duterte approved the recommendations during the 24th Cabinet meeting at Malacanang Palace last Wednesday.

At least, the six-month shutdown of Boracay would be lesser evil than Cimatu’s original bright idea of one-year maximum closure of the entire island resort. The DENR Secretary originally recommended this maximum period for the rehabilitation and recovery of the tourist island from its environmental woes to eventually restore it as the country’s prime tourist destination.

During the closure period, Cimatu initially lined up the following activities that would be undertaken in Boracay:

• The sewage system of the island would be improved,

• The needed solid waste management facilities would also be installed following discovery that the island generated solid wastes between 90 to 115 tons per day despite the local government’s hauling capacity of only 30 tons per day.

• The roads on the island would also be widened. The rest of the detailed rehabilitation plans have yet to be spelled out.

After Cimatu’s earth-shaking announcement of the planned closing down of the entire island resort, the Boracay Task Force started demolishing several of the many illegally built structures found put up almost close to the beaches in violation of the prescribed easement. Based from initial inspections done by the Boracay Task Force estimates, 900 of these structures were put up in forestlands and wetlands while more than 100 are within easement areas.

President Duterte earlier disclosed he would declare a state of calamity in Boracay, usually done in the wake of typhoons or other natural calamities, to enable both the national and local government authorities to mobilize emergency funds available.

Before the President and the Cabinet approved the temporary shutdown last Wednesday, we invited to our Kapihan sa Manila Bay some of the members of the technical working group of Task Force Boracay to discuss the specifics of their rehabilitation plans on the planned temporary shutdown of Boracay resort island. DOT assistant secretary for public affairs and communications Ricky Alegre, DENR undersecretary Jonas Leones, and Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) president Jojo Clemente joined the discussions during our weekly Kapihan breakfast forum at Cafe Adriatico in Remedios Circle in Malate.

Alegre and Leones both underscored anew the need to proceed with the massive rehabilitation of Boracay as scheduled amid petitions by the Boracay Foundation Inc., composed of business establishments operating in the island resort. Both officials admitted implementing the planned temporary shutdown of the island resort will entail of lot of business losses, not to mention the impact to “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” tourism program.

Speaking for  the affected sectors in the tourism industry by the total closure of Boracay, Clemente reiterated their appeal to President Duterte to consider at least a phase-by-phase implementation of the rehabilitation program and allow the continued operations of compliant establishments. The TCP president clarified they fully support the President’s intention to save Boracay from further degradation. But the proposed cure, the TCP fears, might be worse than the malady.

The decision though to undertake now the entire rehabilitation of Boracay is the better option in order to protect it so that the next generation of Filipinos could continue to enjoy such God-given natural resource of the country.

President Duterte’s describing Boracay to have become  a “cesspool” was the result of years of overcapacity and over-exploitation of our country’s foremost tourist destination. With its shutdown – though temporarily for the next six months – can the Philippines afford to lose Boracay? #Save Boracay.