In Boracay, tricycle rides to turn quiet

ILOILO CITY—While tourists best remember Boracay for its white sand beach and clear, shallow waters, they’re also not likely to forget its noisy and smoke-belching tricycles, the resort island’s main mode of transportation.

Things are likely to change soon, although tricycles would remain to be Boracay’s kings of the road.

The town council of Malay, Aklan, passed a resolution promoting a shift to the mode of transportation on the island from petroleum- to electric-powered tricycles.

The resolution, passed by the council unanimously on Sept. 20, expressed support for the project of the Department of Energy and Asian Development Bank to finance a program that would supply electric tricycles nationwide.

The Malay council hopes to ride on this project, which would supply electric tricycles to one of the Philippines’ top tourist destination.

Electric tricycles, which would cost P200,000 to P250,000 per unit, would replace at least 507 registered units of petroleum-fueled tricycles that have been the main mode of transportation on the 1,032-hectare island for years.

If plans push through, electric tricycles would be made available and paid through amortization by the local government unit and tricycle drivers. In two years, the council hopes to banish petroleum-fueled three-wheeled vehicles in Boracay.

The number of registered motor vehicles in Boracay has more than tripled from 553 in 2004 to 1,861 in 2007. Most of these (1,486 or 79.84 percent) are motorcycles using two-stroke engines, according to the DENR Boracay environmental master plan.