NOT A PLEASURE TRIP Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu rides a fast craft to check on the waters around Boracay as part of the DENR’s “Operation Plan: Regain Paradise.” —LYN RILLON
BORACAY ISLAND, AKLAN—Establishments built within the 30-meter shoreline easement in the country’s prime tourist destination are to be demolished, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said here on Thursday.
Cimatu gave the instructions to personnel of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) at the launch of a national task force assigned to crack down on violators within the six-month deadline set by President Duterte.
The President, who calls Boracay a “cesspool,” has threatened to close down the island if the sewage and garbage problems and other violations of environmental laws and regulations are not solved in six months.
Cimatu on Thursday inspected resorts along the beach for compliance with easement rules and those built on wetlands.
‘So many violators’
“I was surprised that there were so many violators but we will try our best to complete the mission in that prescribed time,” he told the Inquirer after the inspection.
In his speech before more than 100 DENR personnel before going to Boracay, the environment chief rallied the employees to complete their tasks within six months.
“We can do it,” Cimatu told them, referring to the President’s deadline.
He urged the personnel to inspect and serve notices of violation and show-cause orders on structures built on wetlands, those violating road easement rules, and establishments illegally discharging wastewater into the sea.
‘Worsening flooding’
“Wetlands should remain wetlands,” Cimatu said, blaming the worsening flooding on the island to the covering up of wetlands.
He urged the DENR personnel to “neutralize” the “enemy,” referring to the violators.
Cimatu was noncommittal to proposals seeking to place the island under a state of emergency to hasten the crackdown on violators. The proposals, made by the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Tourism (DOT), will still be discussed, according to him.
About 10 DENR personnel from each of the country’s 14 regions will be assigned to Boracay on a 15-day rotation to augment the DENR’s Western Visayas office.
Cimatu said he would continue his inspection of structures in forest lands on Friday.
He said structures inside forest lands would also be removed if they could not get a Forest Land Use Agreement for Tourism Purposes (FLAgT).
A FLAgT allows the temporary use, occupation and development of any forest land for tourism purposes for a period of 25 years, renewable for another 25.
The agreement covers forest lands to be used for bathing, camp sites, ecotourism destinations, hotel sites and other tourism purposes.
“If they will not apply for a FLAgT and insist on being illegal, they might be removed,” Cimatu said.
No rifles
He also appealed to policemen and soldiers accompanying DENR personnel on the island not to carry high-powered firearms.
“I gave instructions already that escorts will have no [rifles],” Cimatu, a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told the Inquirer here on Thursday.
He said soldiers who were seen carrying high-powered rifles with DENR personnel serving notices and orders on alleged violators of environmental laws were “newly assigned” to the area.
He said the DENR personnel would be escorted by policemen wearing the tourist police office uniform consisting of short pants, shirt and bull cap with a side arm.
Several resort owners and residents on the island earlier raised concern over the heavily armed soldiers and policemen joining DENR personnel going to residences and commercial establishments identified as alleged violators of environmental regulations.
A hotel operator earlier told the Inquirer that a family of foreigners was alarmed over the sight of the heavily armed men, prompting them to check out of the hotel and cut short their stay on the island.
The Philippine National Police in Western Visayas has said that the policemen and soldiers are merely escorting the DENR personnel upon the request of the agency.
Some property owners have security guards and the presence of armed policemen and soldiers is necessary to ensure the safety and security of DENR personnel, Supt. Gilbert Gorero, PNP Western Visayas spokesperson, earlier said.
Restore Boracay
In Makati City, Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo met her counterparts from the environment and interior departments to finalize government efforts to rehabilitate.
“We are here to save Boracay, to restore Boracay to its original form, which used to be a paradise before,” Teo said after a closed-door meeting with Cimatu, acting Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and other senior government officials.
At the meeting, the DOT-Western Visayas regional office gave updates on the activities undertaken by its Boracay Compliance Monitoring Office, Boracay Field Office and the Malay Municipal Tourism Office.
“It is business as usual in Boracay Island as tourist traffic remains relatively similar or heavier as compared to the past days and weeks,” the DOT quoted regional director Helen Catalbas as saying.
It said that according to Catalbas, booking cancellations on Boracay in the past few days since the President’s warning were “insignificant.”
Only 12 accommodation establishments with only 64 rooms and 192 visitors have reported cancellations. —WITH A REPORT FROM JEROME ANING IN MANILA