Task force adopts Boracay action plan

The Boracay InterAgency Task Force adopted the mediumterm action plan for the country’s premier tourist destination, formally laying out proposed programs for the island’s rehabilitation.

The Boracay Action Plan (BAP), which was adopted last December 21, will install safeguards from ecological degradation and sustain tourism activities in the southern island.

Socioeconomic Planning Undersecretary Adoracion M. Navarro said yesterday that these programs and activities will be implemented following Boracay’s six-month closure period, which took place from April to October last year.

“It primarily provides the strategic interventions to ensure the island’s rehabilitation over the medium term and sustainable management over the long term,” Navarro said in a statement.

The Plan embodies the stakeholders’ vision of a “secure and globally-competitive worldclass tourism destination with a vibrant, productive and climateresilient economy that is geared toward inclusive growth and anchored on the sustainable development of its innate natural resources.”

Moreover, the plan has four thematic areas, namely: enforcement of laws and regulations, pollution control and prevention, rehabilitation and recovery of the ecosystem, and sustainability of island activities.

The proposed estimated total investment requirement for the plan is 125.27 billion for all thematic areas. Notably, a total of 116.21 billion (64 percent of the total) will be allotted for infrastructure.

The indicative number of programs, projects, and activities combined under all the thematic areas is 233. The private sector will finance 115.89 billion or 62.9 percent of the total cost.

Created by Executive Order (EO) No. 53, the interagency task force is tasked to formulate an action plan that serves as a guide for Boracay Island’s rehabilitation.