BORACAY ISLAND, Aklan — A number of residents and business owners here have expressed resistance on the initial tourism master plan which include to increase the beach easement from 30 meters to 50 meters fearing displacement of for more establishments.
The Boracay community got a glimpse of the initial perspective of the master plan for the island and mainland Malay during a public consultation on Thursday.
The first public consultation aimed to gather recommendations to finalize the tourism master plan for Malay, said Ma. Victoria Bravo of Palafox Associates.
The Palafox Associates , led by world-renowned urban planner Felino Palafox, was hired by the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Malay to create its tourism master plan with an allocation of PHP5.5 million.
The public consultation is part of the seven-month contract of Palafox Associates with the LGU.
However, a number of residents and business owners expressed opposition to the Palafox proposal to increase the beach easement from 30 meters to 50 meters.
Business owner Dionisio Salme said that while the development is really good, he feared that more establishments would be affected.
He added that with the proposed 50 meters easement, more establishments and people would be displaced.
“There might be some other solution that could retain the image of the island,” he told the media during the event.
Salme said that the master plan should just focus on preserving the environment of Boracay, especially the beaches.
“They should just preserve the long beach….there is no need for concrete and modern mode of transport on that area,” he said.
The plan also includes road expansions for proposed railways.
The Palafox team meanwhile clarified that the plan is not yet final.
Bravo said the input and recommendations from the public consultation will be considered in drafting a final plan.
Part of Thursday’s consultation is also a visioning exercise participated by residents, local officials and other stakeholders from the 17 barangays of Malay.
She said another public hearing and consultation will be conducted in the next months.
Bravo said the model shown to the public were initially based from the National Tourism Plan in 1991 and Boracay Integrated Master Plan in 2006, a Palafox project with Philippine Tourism Authority now Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority .
Malay Mayor Ceciron Cawaling said that the LGU has hired the renowned urban planner group even before President Rodrigo Duterte made a pronouncement about the issues in Boracay.
He said the Palafox Associate won the bidding for the project in December of last year and signed the Memorandum of Agreement last January. (PNA)
