I WAS astonished upon seeing the enormous show of political will in Boracay Island in a recent trip after the All Souls’ and Saints’ Days celebration for a respite from the stressful grind of being a metro dweller.
The sight of chopped up or completely knocked down structures, not only on the famous white sand beach area, but in almost all parts of the three-barangay island, following the directive of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to clear all illegal structures as part of the effort to resuscitate the dying paradise.
As I was transported from the island’s wharf to my hotel in Station 1 at the beachfront area, there was no roadside structure left untouched as a result of the ongoing widening of the circumferential road that substantially increases if not doubles the width of the original road.
Some structures suffered partial to sizable cuts like that of a radio station where only a third of their original structure was left, making it unsuitable for broadcast operations, while others were not as lucky after their entire building was knocked down.
In the beachfront along Station 1, not a single resort or restaurant was spared from the partial demolition after the government strictly implemented the 30-meter salvage zone from the shoreline that used to be utilized as sunbathing or dining area.
While blown in disbelief from what I witnessed, the van driver volunteered the information that the cliffside resort rumored to be owned by boxing icon Sen. Manny Pacquiao is now rubble since it was found to be situated on a no-build zone area.
He also confided that what was once considered as the biggest resort hotel in the entire island in terms of the number of rooms and facilities is now deserted and just waiting to be demolished after it was also built in the wetland area.
A substantial portion of the original circumferential road was condemned and moved a few meters inward to be able to comply with easement required by law since the original motorway was too close to the beachfront.
If government political muscle successfully thumped the violators and whacked their illegal structures in Boracay, why could it not be done in the other parts of the country, especially in Cebu?
Resorts in Cebu are not lagging in terms of illegal structures where numerous resort owners even fenced the entire beachfront for the exclusive use of their rich clients depriving the marginal fisher folks and local residents the use of the seashores for livelihood and relaxation.
Even before the closure of Boracay one and a half year ago, there was no fence or structures extending to the sea from Station 1 to 3 unlike in Cebu where concrete structure extend to the seawater not to mention the areas cordoned off with floating buoys made off limits to non-resort clients.
I hope the administration of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia can flex muscles to give back the shoreline to the people and to complement her centerpiece tourism project, the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo that gainfully earned a following from local and foreign guests in its latest staging.