THE now defunct Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group (BIARMG) is still hoping that President Rodrigo Duterte will renew soon the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF).

The BIATF's term expired last May 8, 2020.

Natividad Bernardino, BIARMG head, said they submitted a proposal to Malacañang last March to extend the BIATF for at least one year and six months.

The BIATF was created through Executive Order 53, series of 2018, which implemented the six-month closure of Boracay in 2018. It created the BIARMG to manage the rehabilitation management group.

"The task force role in rehabilitating Boracay is now stalled as we await for the decision of President Duterte. Each government agencies now which is a member of the BIATF could resume anytime their pending works at their own discretion," Bernardino told SunStar Philippines.

Among those who have major pending works in Boracay Island are the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Benny Antiporda, undersecretary of the DENR, said that despite the fact that several ground works have not yet been completed, the BIATF has accomplished its mission.

"In 2018, President Duterte declared Boracay a cesspool. Now, the BIATF has turned around the state of Boracay and us now beautiful," he said. (SunStar Philippines)