DENR supports Boracay environmental fee hike  

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu is in favor of increasing the environmental fee collected from tourists in Boracay Island to cover the cost of waste management.

“Personally, if it will accrue to the improvement of the situation or condition of Boracay, I will,” Cimatu said on Thursday in a media briefing of the Boracay Interagency Task Force (BIATF) when asked on his take on increasing the environmental fee in the world-renowned island.

“Because ang environmental fee lang yata ngayon is P75. Now if we increase this in favor of having a very clean, no garbage at saka ‘yung ating mga environmental issues dito ay ma-address properly or ma-sustain,” he added.

Cimatu said the local government unit that collects the environmental fee through an ordinance is also considering an significant increase.

“And with this, with some problem and financial cost of a zero-waste policy, they are really very aware of this problem and I think they are considering also increasing, yung local government, especially yung mga naggawa ng ordinance,” he said.

Cimatu said the additional fee could also be used to fund the improvement of Boracay’s sanitary landfill which is located in the town of Malay, Aklan.

“Aside from that, the maintenance ng sanitary landfill is also being considered because you don’t like na malinis nga dito tapos yung pinagtatapunan ay very irresponsible,” he said. / gsg