Not So Sure

I'm not really looking forward to going to Boracay with the family at the end of the month after reading in the paper about flooding and seeping sewage and smelly water in the vicinity of White Beach. I just don't want to risk going there and then having to experience these things as well. It would just be too expensive and too bothersome for the family. Furthermore, when I read this editorial from today's Inquirer, I was all the more decided to forego the trip and instead choose Bohol or Puerto Galera. I think that for more affordable prices, we could all have fun and at the same time, see sights as well. So tonight, Ruther and I will talk more deeply about this and hopefully, we will come to a decision about a destination.

I share the editorial from Inquirer here:

Boracay bomb
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:09am (Mla time) 01/07/2008

MANILA, Philippines - It does not take frequent visits to the famous white beaches of Boracay to realize that rapid growth is strangling the small island. Even a first-time traveler will notice, if he keeps his eyes open, that the crowded tourist destination has become even more congested. Growth has put a great strain on the island’s support systems, including those that carry potable water to the hundreds of resorts, bars and restaurants operating on the island and those that carry wastewater out.
Ask the regulars who are back in Boracay this week for an annual wind-surfing competition; quite a few will say that the world-famous island they have grown to love is an environmental time bomb.
Consider the numbers: Now a multibillion-peso industry, Boracay tourism probably attracted some 700,000 tourists last year—up by 200,000 from the half-million arrivals recorded only two years previously. To meet the explosion in demand, many investors are seeking to build more resorts and restaurants; pending applications include those for two 400-room hotels.
In an ideal world, these are applications that should be approved with all possible speed. But growth in Boracay has reached a stage where the paramount concern has shifted, from asking whether the island has enough rooms and facilities to service the continuing increase in tourist arrivals, to asking how much time the island has left before unchecked development leads to a collapse in services. To put it in terms appropriate to the modern fairy tale that is Boracay tourism: Is rapid growth killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?
The Department of the Environment and Natural Resources is putting together an “environmental master development plan” that should help provide the honest answer to that essential question, but the process depends in part on the successful implementation of a six-month suspension in new construction projects that Environment Secretary Lito Atienza announced last August.
Unfortunately, five months into the suspension, Atienza remains in a tug of war with the municipal council that governs Boracay. The other day, in a stunning admission of inutility, Atienza said: “We advised them [Malay, Aklan Mayor Cicero Cawaling and the municipal council] months ago to stop all development projects on the island before the studies that are being made by the Department of Tourism and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources are completed. But it seems that construction there continues.”
It “seems” construction continues? Can’t Atienza say for sure? If Boracay is important enough for the country’s tourism prospects and as a regional development template, can’t Atienza take the time to verify ongoing construction projects for himself?
We agree with Atienza’s controversial suspension order; we share his premise that while continuing development is welcome, environmental sustainability is now the key standard of growth. But we must wonder at Atienza’s resolve. His suspension order was greeted with immediate resistance. A month after it was announced, the newspapers reported that construction projects were still ongoing. The town mayor hemmed and hawed and said a municipal council resolution was needed to put the suspension order into effect. Five months later, the resolution remains unpassed, and Atienza is reduced to admonishing the local mayor about the consequences of his inaction.
The local government would have to answer to its people, Atienza said, “if they persist in not implementing what is correct and mandated by law.” And in the meantime, the Boracay environmental time bomb is ticking.
If Atienza and Tourism Secretary Ace Durano are serious about keeping Boracay as a viable tourist destination for the next generation, they have many options to choose from. Atienza can re-impose his suspension order, on the grounds that it had never taken effect. Durano must put his department’s dollar-earning weight behind the order, and convince the municipal council which depends on the tourism dollars generated by Boracay that the suspension is in its best interests. And together, Atienza and Durano can make the case for development, not on Boracay, but on the Aklan mainland. After all, it is only 15 minutes away from the famous but now overcrowded beaches.