Drainage audit, dismantling of structures top Boracay priorities
With Boracay Island’s closure happening on April 26, the national government is now preparing its “big ticket” rehabilitation works in the island, which include drainage audit and the dismantling of illegal infrastructures that violate environmental laws.
Department of Tourism (DOT) Assistant Secretary Frederick Alegre said Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores already reaffirmed his commitment to this effort, including some Boracay stakeholders who have initiated the demolition of their own structures.
“Six months is really not enough, but these are big-ticket
items that can be done within the first six months,” he said in a press briefing in Malacañang.
This is based on the draft timeline by the inter-agency task force, composed of the DOT, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
In an initial report, at least 190 establishments within easement areas and 937 illegal infrastructures within forestlands and wetlands were identified by the inter-agency group.
With this number of illegal establishments, “there are a lot of illegal connections on the drainage” which causes wastewater discharge in the sea, DILG Assistant Secretary Epimaco Densing III said.
A working conference is set next Tuesday among the stakeholders, local government units, and officials from the DILG, DOT, and DENR.
“We hope to get a clearer picture before Tuesday, but as it is, we are still discovering pipes that have been hidden from us all these years,”Alegre said.
At the Cabinet meeting, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said validations on which resort owners are in compliance with rules and regulation of the island were recommended. Densing said this was readily conducted within the day.
“We found out that (some) establishments who are saying they are compliant end up not to be compliant at all,” Densing said.
In one instance, Crown Regency Prince, a hotel on the island claimed it was compliant vis-a-vis the sewerage treatment plant (STP).
“We found out that they don’t even have a sanitary permit nor a functioning STP, that’s why the hotel had to be closed,” he added.
“Based on the recommendation we’ve made just yesterday, during the period of closure from May until August, we are going to validate and do an environmental compliance audit for each establishment whether they say they are compliant or not,” he added.
Drafted case Government lawyers are now drafting “potential administrative cases” against individuals responsible for the polluted state of the island.
“We have finished now our evidence gathering, we’re finishing our case build-up activity, right now, our lawyers are drafting a potential administrative case,” Densing said, adding their target filing date is on or before April 14.
When asked how many officials were included, no figures were revealed but Densing said the standard procedure is to investigate “all local officials who are managing the island.”
Not entirely closed
Technically, Boracay is only closed to foreign and local tourists, Densing and Alegre said.
“First of all, government and its agencies cannot arbitrarily close institutions without due process,” the DILG official added.
Since the major issue of pollutants comes from the market, which are the visitors coming into the island, Densing said it’s for the best they keep Boracay tourist-free temporarily”so that while doing the rest of the rehabilitation, there will be no additional pollutants that can come into the island.”
To circumvent the impending labor crisis in the island, some of the affected residents and workers are expected to join the Boracay restoration works.
The shutdown was supposed to be at a later date or during the off-peak season starting June, as confirmed by DOT Secretary Wanda Teo.
With the initiatives of the local government to cancel tourist activities such as the popular LaBoracay on top of the rising level of pollution in the island, the inter-agency decided to move the shutdown at an earlier date.
“It’s the LGU who decided to cancel LaBoracay, now that it’s cancelled, there’s more reason to execute the rehabilitation on an earlier date,” Alegre said.
President Duterte on Wednesday approved the recommendation to close the island for six months starting April 26.
Fallout
On Friday, the country’s tourism industry scrambled to manage the fallout from the temporary shutdown of Boracay island, which threw into chaos trips planned by hundreds of thousands of tourists.
Hundreds of Boracay hotels, as well as restaurants, tour operators and business establishments were on Friday undertaking the daunting process of unwinding bookings for rooms, flights, weddings and other events and facilities.
‘’Some people are cursing us... it’s nasty,’’ Hotel Sales and Marketing Association president Christine Ibarreta told AFP.
‘’I hope (there will be) no mess and no chaos,’’ she added. ‘’We just want it to be orderly.’’
Ibarreta said ‘’hundreds of thousands’’ of bookings made as far as two years in advance - potentially worth millions of dollars for hotels and other tourism services - would have to be either cancelled and refunded, or rebooked.
‘’Some people are okay but some people cannot understand,’’ tour operator Clang Garcia told AFP, adding clients are typically offered a refund or an alternate destination ‘’to save the account.’’
Domingo Enerio, the retired former head of the government’s Tourism Promotions Board, said some of the cancelled bookings contained non-refundable conditions and would have to be renegotiated or credited for future use.
Under the government plan, police or even soldiers will be deployed to keep away tourists from the tiny central Philippine island, while residents will be issued special identification cards to ensure continued access while Boracay is rehabilitated.
Domestic airlines announced on Thursday they would scale back the number of flights to the jumping-off point for the 1,000-hectare (2,470-acre) island.
Industry officials say Boracay accounts for about 20 percent of the country’s tourism revenues, and fear a longer-term fallout on the Philippines’ image as a tourism destination.
‘’Overall it looks bleak,’’ Enerio, the former tourism official, told AFP.
‘’Boracay will definitely take a hit and the Philippine tourism industry will take a hit,’’ he added.
Ibarreta, the hotel industry official, said the six-month tourist ban would likely mean the industry will lose some of its 17,000 workers in Boracay.
‘’So we’ll have to retrain people (after the ban is lifted) and that’s expensive,’’ she added.
Labor guidelines
Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is set to issue an advisory that will guide employers in the formal sector.
Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the advisory will be on what can be done to the affected employees during the period.
“It will be about how the employers will treat their workers. Should they terminate them? If they terminate them, then they should be entitled to separation pay,” he said Thursday.
“Or should they retain them? Especially since it will only be for six months,” added Bello.
Bello, meantime, admitted that only about 5,000 workers in Boracay shall be provided with emergency employment assistance.
“We are estimating about maybe 5,000 beneficiaries. That is the only number we could afford,” said Bello.
He added that priority shall be given to members of the informal sector, such as food stall vendors.
“We will use them to cleanup Boracay. That is what we are assessing so that we can have their participation during the closure of Boracay,” said Bello.
Under the emergency employment program, worker-beneficiaries shall get the prevailing minimum wage rate in the region as well as social security benefits.