BORACAY ISLAND, Aklan — Boracay on Thursday marked half-way of its six-month closure and rehabilitation.
Jim Sampulna, Regional Director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Western Visayas (DENR-6), said that they are still on track for its reopening on October 26.
“Actually after less than one month, I can say that we are already done with the job because we have already identified the problem and the solutions. We are now in the rehabilitation stage,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
In fact, he said that if locals will fully cooperate, the soft opening of the island scheduled in September will possibly push through.
Sampulna said they will re-check, one by one, the establishments in the island to ensure that they are all compliant with the environmental laws during the reopening.
Once reopened, Sampulna envisions a Boracay island that has a cleaner beach with wider roads and establishments compliant to environmental laws.
The Environmental Management Bureau –Western Visayas (EMB 6) has issued a total of 478 notices of violation to establishments in this island for violating environmental laws; 157 were already endorsed to the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) and 35 had already been slapped with penalties ranging from PHP60,000 to PHP80,000.
Meanwhile, clearing of roads and demolition of structures for the road widening project is now 85 percent complete, said Al Fruto, Assistant Regional Director of the Department of Public Works and Highways 6.
The PHP490-million rehabilitation and improvement of the 4.12-kilometer main road from Cagban Port to Elizalde property is now 15 percent complete, he said.
It was in February this year when President Rodrigo Duterte tagged the island as “cesspool”, which prompted him to close the island from tourists starting April 26.
Earlier, DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu said that the island is no longer a cesspool, saying that the its long White beach is already clean.
Based on the daily and weekly statistics and laboratory tests of the island’s water quality conducted by the EMB-6, the level of coliform concentration of the water in the front beach is already at the safe level of 400 MPN (most probable number) per 100 ml (milliliters).
Helen Catalbas, Regional Director of the Department on Tourism 6, said she envisioned Boracay with “less potholes, wider streets and very clean beach” when it reopens.
She said the reopening on October 26 will be “low key” and “will not going to be grand because rehabilitation is a work in progress.”
“It is going to be a work in progress that is why we are tentatively targeting 5,000 accredited rooms on opening daily,” she said.
“And as we go along with the compliance of the tourism establishments particularly the accommodation sector to the requirements of the government, we are looking at 7,500 or 50 percent of the actual room capacity of the island by the end of 2018,” she said.
Meantime, Nennette Graf, President of the Boracay Foundation Incorporated (BFI), said they “trust” the Inter-agency Task Force that the island will be ready for reopening.
She also assured that they are willing to comply with all the requirements set by the task force so they will be allowed to operate again.(Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
