Let me take you to another controversial subject–Boracay--where some startling events took place while the High Court was on fire. It looks like that while everybody was focused on the Sereno debate, the vultures in Boracay are back with their brute exercise of power and insatiable greed.
While we are shown the luxuriant growth of algae that feed on untreated pollutants from the establishments along what used to be a pristine shoreline of Boracay, we have yet to be updated on the issue of massive corruption involving billions of pesos collected from environmental fees, the sale of wetlands, “sale” of permits to establishments, which allowed to build structures within the so-called 25+5 shoreline demarcation.
And if I were to add a question because this matter seemed to be buried in the polluted sands of Boracay, I want to know why the water utilities failed to provide a decent sewerage system when their water rates is about the most expensive in the Philippines if not the world?
The DENR, DPWH and DILG are showing us pictures of sewerage and drainage pipes to impress us they discovered something spectacular. Those are hogwash. What these agencies should tell us is why the water utilities have no sewerage system in this little island of 1,000 hectares and why the local government simply closed their eyes on this and other anomalies that reek.
Consider this. When President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the closure, the local government of Boracay, the local tourism industry and the Department of Tourism estimated that the total estimated revenues loss would amount to P60 billion in the six-month period that it will be closed. If this is so then how come the facilities are so decrepit and yes, President Duterte is correct in calling it a virtual cesspool.
I wrote a piece about Boracay when President Duterte ordered the closure of the island to tourism activity for what we may term as a major rehab.
I thought that was that. Then I received a photo of a whole mountain that had been leveled and its trees gone!
This islet, I presume, is crawling with DENR and local government authorities to include a contingent of soldiers. Then how can this blatant abuse take place? The lame excuse we are getting is that that wide area of land cleared on top of the forest land took place long before the closure order. My gosh! They haven’t stopped their tomfoolery. The leveled ground and its color show this was a very recent activity.
A big hotel establishment, which was reported as committing a grave violation, is not being touched. Many DENR and DILG officials are billeted here. Only the soldiers are living in tents. I was told the management even had the gall to display a tarpaulin which says “business as usual.”
The beach fronts of big-named hotels are still their private domains when these should be for the public. DENR has come up with the list of violators. Maybe it is about time we see the results. What is the P2-billion calamity fund for Boracay for?