March 2018 musings: Paradise reborn?

Cleanup drive included demolishing or closing down erring businesses
Cleanup drive included demolishing or closing down erring businesses

WHAT does it take to resurrect?

Boracay. It’s an island paradise, one of the best beaches in the world.

Just like any other paradise, everybody wants to be a part of it. They build, people come. They build more and more people come. They build without propriety and people still patronize. It became so crowded that the island is suffering, or shall I say, dying. It’s the price of progress. And greed.

Boracay is at the center of controversy today.

I have experienced Boracay when the Habagat season (aka low season) meant the island is nearly deserted with only a few souls walking down the strip at night. It was a time when you can capture the perfect sunset shot without heads bobbing up and down the frame.

The peak season then would bring in the crowd, and by crowd it means the hotels may be fully booked but the shoreline won’t be like the halls of a shopping mall on a weekend midnight sale. Well, there were fewer rooms then.

Everybody wants in so they built more rooms, and restaurants, and shopping places, and a mall! Now there’s only high and peak seasons and peak meant you walk elbow to elbow with tourists in the mall and the White Beach.

Last month, the government agencies took action. But that was after the President turned his eye on the island, called it a cesspool and announced a possible closure of the island.

Political will makes its presence known.

On my recent visit, structural demolitions of erring establishments along the shores of Puka and White beaches took place. Other businesses were ordered closed because, believe it or not, it has been operating for the longest time sans a business permit.

It was the start of the island’s cleansing process.

In some parts of the island, the beaches now sports a look of what it was years back— clean and uncluttered. Boracay is regaining its wide shoreline and you may have seen a few photos on social media.

What we don’t see is the state of the island’s interior. Forgive me for saying this, but it’s disgusting. This is where much of the island’s problems lie. Too many structures—legal and illegal—have risen with more rising. The sewage system cannot support these growth. But they built anyway. Now where does the waste go? Your guess is as good as mine.

Like I said, the cleansing process has started and it can work from the outside in. I just hope it doesn't get sidetracked or, at its worse, cease.

About the lumot? The algae can’t be the gauge of the water’s purity. A local told me algae appears when the season changes. It’s been like that for the longest time. Even a child played with it, swam with it and sometimes made it his underwater hiding place. According to him, it’s what keeps the sand white.

Is he against the closure, if it does happen? He said he’s all for it. The island is his and his clan’s home and they will be so happy to see it back to its pristine form. In the long run, they stand more to lose than anyone else. The others, who relocated here for business, can always go back where they’re from if they don’t make it. “We don’t have that luxury,” he said.

I, for one, want a Boracay resurrection. A Boracay Island just like in the old days. One that we can really proud of saying, “It's the best island in the world.”

It can happen.

Political will.

*****

For more photos about this feature, visit ofapplesandlemons.com. For travel stories, visit jeepneyjinggoy.com. Email me at jinggoysalvador@yahoo.com

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