Fifty to 60 percent complete.
That’s how Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu described the ongoing rehabilitation effort at the resort island of Boracay, barely three months after it was ordered closed.
Part of the government’s rehabilitation efforts include the building of 12-meter wide roads in the island, as well as the creation of a circumferential road to ease traffic.
“Implementation nalang itong hinihintay e. Kasi itong a matter of time, siyempre, construction of the road, ayun nga, kung wala lang mag-ulan-ulan diyan, balak nga nila day and night e,” Cimatu said in a television interview.
He added that all hotels with 50 rooms or more only have until September to build their own water treatment facilities.
“I ordered that they have to detach by September na dapat hindi na sila do’n naka-konekta do’n sa sewage line, but their own treatment plant,” added Cimatu.
Boracay was ordered closed to both local and foreign tourists since April 26 to make way for the rehabilitation effort.
President Rodrigo Duterte had described the island as a cesspool and ordered concerned government agencies to solve its problems.
Meanwhile, Barangay Cogon residents in Boracay said they are worried over a plan of the government to build a relocation site for workers on the island.
“’Yung sa amin kasi tahimik na lugar namin eh. Panibagong pakisama nanaman ‘yan,” barangay captain Boboy Tayco said, in speaking for the village’s 500 residents.
Although residents were not necessarily opposed to the project, they expressed hopes that it would be completed in an “organized” manner.