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Philippines
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Boracay rehab gets under way; no TRO from SC

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THE government shuttered Boracay to tourists on Thursday for a six-month cleanup that was enforced with a show of force.

Coast guard boats were on patrol and assault rifle-wielding police were posted at entry points to the once-pristine island that has become tainted by heavy commercialization and overdevelopment.

Regional police head Cesar Binag said the shutdown began past midnight, with tourists barred from boarding the ferry that is the main way onto the island.

GOODBYE BORACAY. Workers demolish Thursday the walls of the West Cove Hotel in Boracay as authorities shuttered the holiday island for a six-month cleanup the government imposed with a muscular show of security forces. Below top is the general view of the almost demolished hotel while policemen (Below) patrol the streets of Boracay. AFP

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“Boracay is officially closed to tourists. We are not closing establishments but tourists cannot enter. We are implementing the instruction of the President,” Binag said.

About 600 policemen were deployed, with some performing life-like drills including riot officers battling bottle-hurlingBoracay protesters and mock hostage taking of sunbathers—all before startled locals.

“My nephews and nieces were afraid,” Filipino tourist Tara Calcetas said. “It was scary because there were people swimming yesterday (at the beach) and the police were firing guns as if there was a criminal here.”

The government conceded on Thursday there was no real threat, with Interior Assistant Secretary Epimaco Densing saying the security presence was “just part of preparing for the worst.”

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the shutdown this month after calling the resort a “cesspool,” dirtied by tourism-related businesses flushing their raw sewage directly into the ocean.

During the closure, only residents with ID cards are allowed to board ferries to Boracay, which is home to about 40,000 people.

People on the so-called “party island” held a final bash on the beachfront on the eve of the closure, complete with a fireworks display and cheers of “Bye, Bye Boracay.”

But on Thursday, residents had the swaying palms, turquoise waters and usually mobbed white-sand beaches mostly to themselves.

“This is what you call an island, a paradise. Boracay looks like its original beautiful self,” said restaurant cook John Reymar.

The Philippines has pledged to take advantage of the calm to spruce up the 1,000-hectare chunk of bruised paradise.

There are plans to bulldoze illegal or dilapidated structures, to shore up the island’s infrastructure and clean up the mess left by years of unchecked growth.

However, plans to help the up to 30,000 people who had been employed by the island’s bustling tourist trade were less clear. Though Duterte has promised some $38 million in funds to help workers, they say they haven’t seen a cent yet.

The workers were drawn by the relatively good wages on the island that has seen the number of visitors roughly quadruple to 2 million since 2006.

Those tourists, a growing number of whom are Chinese and Korean, pumped roughly $1 billion in revenue into the economy last year.

But its growth from a sleepy backpacker hideaway into a mass-tourism hub with fastfood outlets on the beach has taken a toll.

Unchecked construction has eaten away at the island’s natural beauty, while slimy algae-filled waves in some areas and mountains of discarded drink bottles are problems acknowledged even by critics of the shutdown.

President Duterte on Thursday signed an executive order declaring a state of calamity in three barangays in Boracay Island, Special Assistant to the President Christopher Go said.

Go said the barangays Balabag, Manoc-Manoc, and Yapac all in the municipality of Malay, Aklan, were placed under a state of calamity to financially help thousands of affected workers and residents affected by the six-month rehabilitation program.

Go said different agencies were doing their part to restore and rehabilitate Boracay.

But residents have complained about the lack of clear guidelines and adequate compensation for workers whose livelihood may be affected by the closure.

Some residents challenged the closure before the Supreme Court, but the justices did not act immediately on a plea for a restraining order. Instead, the Court required the Palace to answer the petition questioning the legality of the closure.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and DILG Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Año wre given 10 days to comply with the Court’s order.

A Court insider said the justices decided to hear the answer of the respondents before taking action on the TRO request.

In their petition, the three residents questioned the authority of the President to order the closure of the island to tourists and non-residents and accused him of violating their constitutional rights to travel and due process.

They alleged that the order violated the separation of powers under the 1987 Constitution since the executive branch has no authority to close down the island based on its supposed police power.

Petitioners also argued that President Duterte overstepped on the power of Congress in issuing the order.

They also asserted that the order is unconstitutional as it restricts the movement of the people within the country in violation of their right to travel under the Constitution.

The petitioners also claimed a violation of their right to due process, which they said includes their “property rights and right to work and earn a living.”

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu on Thursday urged stakeholders to help and participate in the restoration of Boracay.

“We need to rehabilitate Boracay to make it a safe, living, and environmentally sustainable island where people from all walks of life can enjoy the benefits its beauty can bring,” Cimatu, head of the inter-agency Task Force Boracay, said in a statement.

“For that to happen we will need ‘all hands on deck’— government employees, business owners, workers, residents, and of course, the tourists—local and foreign, who have made Boracay a byword in the tourism world.”

Cimatu said efforts being undertaken by his agency to rehabilitate the island during the six-month closure period will be focused on several key areas: drainage and sewerage rehabilitation; solid waste management; forestlands and easement recovery and alienable and disposable land management; road and transport (which includes air quality management); and biodiversity conservation, wetlands rehabilitation, and geological hazard management.

“Within this period we intend, as President Duterte directed, to put in place what we might call a ‘first aid’ solution to Boracay’s woes. We will put its sewage and solid waste systems in place. We will demolish illegal structures—big or small—in the foreshore and protected areas, in the wetlands and forest lands, and even within the road easements,” Cimatu said.

“We intend to review the road and transport network, including the use of the jetty ports, motor vehicles and other means of transport to make these conform to the most desirable means to transport people and goods within a small 1,078-hectare island,” he added.

He said the Environment department will also review the Boracay Master Plan to integrate it with the more comprehensive Northern Aklan Master Plan, which is seen to boost tourism in areas near Boracay such as Malay, Caticlan, Carabao Island, and the entire Aklan province.

Cimatu vowed to deliver a ‘new Boracay’and work towards the sustainability of the island even after the six-month closure period has expired.

The cleanup on Boracay also includes moving against illegal and dilapidated public transport vehicles in Caticlan and Kalibo.

Opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan, meanwhile, questioned the deployment of over 600 police, soldiers, and Coast Guard and Bureau of Fire Protection personnel to enforce the closure.

Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, on the other hand, said it was time for “underrated tourist destinations” to shine during the shutdown. He called on the government to aggressively promote these other destinations.

“While Boracay is undergoing rehabilitation, there are many other beautiful places and world-class destinations in the country that we should be proud of,” said Angara.

“This is an opportune time to help bring our other tourist spots to international recognition, which would continue to entice tourists to visit the Philippines,” he added.

Angara, one of the authors of the Tourism Act of the Philippines, said these emerging tourist hotspots should be prepared for the expected surge of visitors.

He commended the government’s initiatives to check the status of other beach destinations—including El Nido and Coron in Palawan, Siargao in Surigao del Norte, Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro, and Panglao Island in Bohol—to see if they are environmentally compliant.

“The fate of Boracay should serve a lesson to local tourism. We call on government agencies and local officials to strictly implement environmental laws and local ordinances so as to ensure their sustainable development,” said Angara, chairman of the Senate local government committee.

Meanwhile, the president of the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association said some of the group’s members were absorbing workers who will be displaced by the six-month closure.

In an interview with GMA News Online, HSMA president said some members with chains of hotels, have absorbed some of their Boracay employees in their Manila offices.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development said some 500 workers and residents affected by the shutdown have already received transportation assistance.

Three days after the DSWD kicked off its Operations Center to help residents affected by the shutdown, Joey Urquiola, head of operations of DSWD in Aklan, said about 500 residents already claimed their transportation allowance.

“We started giving out cash aid since Monday, and as of today, about 500 people already received it. Everyone who went to our center here already received assistance,” Urquiola said in Filipino.

“Our operations centers are open. There’s an order from the secretary that all workers who will be needing support, whether from the 17,000 workers from the formal sector or those from the informal sector,” he added.

The agency has since deployed its personnel on ground to assess issues faced by communities during the island’s closure.

Social workers have been tapped to report on the status of residents in terms of food, shelter, and livelihood needs.

“As long as there are those who will be needing our assistance, our operations will remain open. Like those involved in construction of hotels,” he added. With Macon Ramos-Araneta, Joel E. Zurbano, PNA and AFP

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