Senators off to Boracay for ocular inspection

Seven senators will fly to Boracay on Friday to conduct an ocular inspection and assess the island’s environmental degradation and sanitation.

Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources, will lead senators in inspecting the island and conducting a public hearing on the problems besetting the island.

She will be joined by Senators. Nancy Binay, chair of the Senate committee on tourism, and Joel Villanueva, Sonny Angara, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Loren Legarda and Richard Gordon.

Speaking over dwIZ yesterday, Villar said the senators would find out how Boracay is being managed and whether the island is run by an agency or the local government unit.

President Duterte recently threatened to close Boracay to tourists after learning that some establishments are dumping their wastewater into the sea.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has started a crackdown on erring establishments that have either built structures on prohibited areas or have no sewerage system.

Apart from the establishment owners, Villar said local government officials could be held liable for the violations.

Meanwhile, DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu on Friday met with Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores and

Malay Mayor Ceciron Cawaling regarding the Boracay pollution problem.

Miraflores and Ceciron assured Cimatu that the local government would help the DENR address the island’s pollution problem. The meeting was attended by representatives from the Boracay Water Co. Inc. (BWCI) and Boracay Tubi System Inc., the water concessionaires serving the island.

Miraflores pledged to provide additional trucks to haul garbage from Boracay to the Malay mainland.

“We need around five trucks or more to move the garbage every night from the island’s materials recovery facility (MRF). This will improve the collection system and the garbage does not have to stay overnight at the MRF,” Cimatu said during the meeting.

He said he would allow BWCI to drain water from their sewage treatment plant in Barangay Balabag to a nearby wetland area provided the water quality meets the standards set by the Environmental Management Bureau.

“This will enable the treatment plant to reduce some load and prevent the problem of backflow,” he said, adding he will only allow it after a water quality test will show that the water is safe for discharge.

Miraflores said the provincial government supports the dismantling of illegal structures breaching the 30-meter shoreline easement.

He said they are also in favor of the demolition of structures within forestland areas that have no land use agreement for tourism from the DENR.

Earlier, the DENR deployed mission teams consisting of personnel from different DENR regional offices to three barangays in Boracay – Balabag, Manoc-Manoc and Yapak.