After a month’s closure, Boracay generally peaceful — police
Boracay Island remains peaceful with no significant incident that transpired during the first month of its shutdown, which covered the election period. Western Visayas police regional director Chief Supt. Cesar Hawthorne Binag said the Metro Boracay Police Task Force (MBPTF) made the report in its assessment that the island resort was peaceful even during the election period on May 14.
The MBPTF is the key player in the security cluster on the implementation of closure and massive rehabilitation of Boracay Island, which was closed to foreign and local tourists starting April 26.
The projected rise of crimes claimed by critics prior to the closure was avoided due to responsive interventions and strategies undertaken by the MBPTF in cooperation with other government agencies, stakeholders and the community.
“The crime environment immensely improved from a total of 96 crime incidents on April 26 to May 25, 2017 to only 11 crimes in the same period this year or an 88.84 percent decrease in crime volume,” Binag said.
In one month, MBPTF has shifted operational focus from public order to anti-criminality since May 1.
Binag said the task force also identified crime hotspots for effective plotting and deployment of beat, mobile and motorcycle patrols. The task force established staging areas where they positioned their resources along with intensification of traffic deployment. The MBPTF is strictly barring tourists or non-residents from entering the island under the “one entry and one exit” policy.
On the other hand, the Metro Pacific Water (MPW), the water infrastructure subsidiary of Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), is proposing a long-term and viable solution to the problem of Boracay, which officials said will come at no cost to the government.
MPW is proposing to put up a treatment facility in the tourist island that will recycle water to totally avoid wasting water resources.
The company will be using a technology with the concept of zero discharge and reuse of water to address the challenges in the island, which has been ordered closed for six months of rehabilitation.
The company is set to submit an unsolicited proposal to the local government of Boracay for the project, MPW president Laurence Rogero told The STAR in a briefing over the weekend.
MPW subsidiary Eco-System Technologies International Inc. will submit the proposal and implement the project.
The proposed facility will have a socalled Sequence Bio Reactor, which is a proprietary system of treatment of contaminated water that deploys patented processes, methods and components of Filipino inventor Robert So, according to Eco-System director for communications Michael Rubio.
He said the status quo approach in Boracay will not work because sewage discharge amounts to 17,500 cubic meters per day.
“Manila Bay conditions will eventually be reached as further development occurs,” Rubio said.
The proposal of MWC will translate to zero discharge of water, he stressed. This means reducing potable water consumption and eliminating pollution loading by recycling and reusing used water for nonpotable purposes.
Rubio said many upscale resorts and businesses have been using their facility. These include Shangri-La Boracay, Amanpulo Resort in Palawan and businesses such as SM Prime, City of Dreams Manila and Okada Manila.
SM Prime implements daily water recycling through the sewage treatment plants. The system recycles used potable water to become non-potable source of water for the business units’ cooling towers, comfort rooms flushing grounds and even irrigation.
Un-recycled water is then discharged to bodies of water within the allowed standards set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)’s existing laws and regulations.
In 2016, potable water consumption of SM Prime totaled 8,933,847 cubic meters, of which 33 percent or 4,707,466 was recycled.
In Boracay, Rubio said this can apply to the whole island pursuant to the zero waste policy of the municipality, which states that all commercial, residential and institutional establishments in the island will have the option and the right to use recycled water, whenever appropriate for domestic and commercial use.