Aklan opposes creation of Boracay Island Development Authority
ILOILO CITY—The provincial government of Aklan has opposed the creation of the Boracay Island Development Authorty (Bida) and instead requested President Duterte to extend for another five years the interagency task force supervising the rehabilitation of Boracay Island.
In a four-page position paper, Aklan officials led by Gov. Florencio Miraflores, Vice Gov. Reynaldo Quimpo and the provincial board members expressed strong opposition to the latest version of a consolidated bill mandating the creation of Bida that would leave out the local government from managing the affairs of Boracay Island.
“(The provincial government of Aklan) vehemently objects to the creation of a corporate entity, with vast and almost all-encompassing powers, which would diminish, if not divest outright constitutionally guaranteed local economy and legally mandated powers affections (of local governments in Aklan).”
The provincial officials said they wanted the President to lengthen instead the mandate of the Boracay Interagency Task Force (BIATF) after it is set to expire on May 8.
The BIATF was created when Boracay was closed for six months to undergo rehabilitation. The term of the task force was initially set from April 26, 2018, to May 8, 2020, but the President extended it by another year.
Free from politics
Bida is intended to replace the BIATF as a permanent body to ensure the sustainable development of the island.
Many residents and business operators in Boracay have been pushing for the creation of a management body instead of placing the island under the sole authority and management of local governments in Aklan.
They believed that one of the key long-term solutions to the island’s environmental and regulation problems is putting Boracay under a body composed of tourism experts and professionals, business operators and a minority of local officials that would be free of politics and political influence.
But Aklan Representatives Teoderico Haresco Jr. and Carlito Marquez said the consolidated bills, now pending before the House committee on government enterprises and privatization, will create a corporate body that will “divest” powers from local governments, as mandated by the Local Government Code.
Marquez, in a letter dated Feb. 2 to Parañaque City Rep. Eric Olivarez, committee chair, raised concerns over provisions of the bill that needed to be “revisited,” such as granting the Bida the power to issue business licenses and building permits and limiting local taxation to collection of real property taxes.
The consolidated bill, which integrates at least 10 separate related bills, also provides that the island authority will prevail when in conflict with local government over matters affecting Boracay Island.
Contravenes local autonomy
The Aklan provincial board passed a resolution on Feb. 1 opposing the creation of Bida that contravenes the Local Government Code and the Philippine Constitution.
The planned Bida will cover the three barangays of Boracay and Barangays Caticlan on the Malay mainland and Barangay Union of neighboring Nabas town.
Miraflores said the consolidated bill was “very much different” from the bills that they had supported.
“It violates a lot of provisions of the Local Government Code,” he said in an earlier press conference in the capital of Kalibo.
“We are not totally against it. [But] it should be a management body, not a corporation,” the governor said.
The Bida will be administered by an 11-member board with the chair appointed by the president of the Philippines.
Three representatives of the business sector will be appointed to the body while the secretaries of the Departments of the Interior and Local Government, Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, and Trade and Industry will sit as ex-officio members.
The President will also appoint an administrator and chief executive officer who will serve a six-year term.
Marquez said that in earlier versions of the bill, the President “merely exercise supervisory authority over local government units and not control power.”