Spur of the moment

It looks like most people agree that Boracay can use a thorough cleanup and better management.

People with nothing to lose in Boracay hope the drastic action will compel cleanups in other travel destinations and promote sustainable development of tourist spots.

Boracay has become a symbol of unplanned, unregulated development. Greed, according to some critics, was given full rein in Boracay, and only someone like Rodrigo Duterte can put a stop to it.

Now people are hoping the President would apply similar drastic action in other lost or threatened Paradise of the Philippines, such as Baguio City and Bontoc.

Still, the way the government is going about the rehabilitation of Boracay is threatening to become as disastrous as the pollution and overdevelopment. There is no coherent plan either for the shutdown or for what will emerge after Duterte has finished huffing and puffing and has blown down the entire house.

Flight cancellations of even half a day during typhoons create enough chaos. Imagine what cancellations covering six months can do. And the reason isn’t an unavoidable natural calamity, coup d’etat or terrorist attack, but a decision made practically on the spur of the moment by the government.

This kind of cleanup, though well-meaning and long overdue, is something you launch with meticulous preparation and sufficient warning, not just to the stakeholders, but to all the travelers who have booked trips to Boracay.  

According to resort owners, those travelers numbered 700,000 for the peak season. That’s more than a tenth of the country’s total tourist arrivals last year, and we’re turning them into victims of knee-jerk, “because I can” decision making in this government.

Because of its international cachet, many bookings in Boracay during the peak summer season together with flight arrangements and payments are made months in advance even by Philippine residents. Now they must work for refunds and make new plans for their vacations – and no one has even bothered to say sorry to them for this supreme inconvenience.

Critics are also hitting the government for trying to raise taxes to finance the Build Build Build infrastructure program by slapping inflationary taxes on fuel and power, while losing P20 billion in earnings in Boracay and allotting another P2 billion for assistance to local workers who will be displaced.

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Affected travelers can make the best of a bad situation and find other destinations to visit in the Philippines – and there are truly a lot to see. This can be easy for Filipinos. But by this time, the resorts that can compete with the sparkling waters and white beach of Boracay in other provinces such as Palawan are likely to be fully booked.

There are many other beaches in our 7,100 islands. But those who transfer their bookings from Boracay to these other resorts may be disappointed to find out that the beaches are dirtier, with not just sewage but solid waste in the water or washing ashore.

If they manage to rebook quickly to another destination in the Philippines, who knows if it might also be shut down? The government must work to dispel that image of unreliability in the country’s travel bookings.

After all that hassle in Boracay, wouldn’t foreign travelers decide not to risk further potential inconvenience and just rebook their vacations in Indonesia’s Bali, Thailand’s Phuket, Malaysia’s Langkawi or Vietnam’s Nha Trang? Or how about the beaches of Maldives, or Sri Lanka?

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Some suggestions coming from certain government officials make you wonder what they’re smoking. One suggested that Metro Manila be marketed as an alternative to Boracay.

Having been born and bred in Manila, I can say that the capital has its own appeal, but no, it ain’t Boracay. As for being a travel hub, there are beaches about two or three hours’ drive from Manila. But even with the current pollution controversy, Boracay still looks more pristine than Anilao. And the cleanest beach in Nasugbu, Batangas is privately owned and closed to tourists. When I was a child, my foot was cut deeply by a discarded tin can while I was swimming in a polluted beach in Cavite. The waters have not been cleaner since then.

Tourists can enjoy the casinos in Metro Manila, which they may never see in Boracay. Duterte said it before flying to Boao for his lovefest with China’s Xi Jinping. So you better believe it, and plan accordingly. Casino haters are rejoicing.

And who knows, Duterte might just make good on reported plans to place Boracay under agrarian reform, since much of the island is classified as agricultural land.  Maybe one day we’ll have the Rice Terraces of Boracay. Put two top Philippine tourism attractions together, buy one, take one.

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To add to the burdens of the affected entrepreneurs in Boracay, the labor department is reportedly ordering establishment owners not to lay off employees during the six-month shutdown.

Instead the owners are told to make their employees go on leave without pay, to exhaust all leaves. But what if there are only a few days or weeks or no leaves at all to exhaust? Our labor officials must be dealing too much with big businessmen, who can live and maintain their lifestyles even for six months without pay or without turning a profit.

Maybe labor officials don’t want Boracay entrepreneurs, at the end of six months, to present the number of people who lost their jobs and livelihood sources because of the shutdown. Would resignations look better than being fired?

This unprecedented shutdown will kill all the small establishments in Boracay. It has fueled speculation that the island is being turned upside down mainly to make way for the entry of big new players favored by the administration.

Duterte, in typical “I’m the President, you’re not” fashion, has said he’s no longer entertaining any appeals on the shutdown starting April 26. That’s just two weeks away.

There must be an orderly, well thought out plan for improving Boracay, and punishing those responsible for its current state. What’s happening is a stampede for the exits triggered by the government, with people being trampled underneath.

Few people will disagree with the need to clean up Boracay and making the island breathe again. But there has to be a better way of going about it.