The final word has come down from President Duterte on the issue of casinos in Boracay and it is a big, fat NO. Pressure had been exerted to allow the existing ones to continue, but the President still said NO.
Not even Pagcor chairman Didi Domingo has been able to convince the President to change his mind. An attempt of a congressman to spare his casino may have even earned him the ire of the President.
A Chinese operator had been dropping names. He was reported to have boasted that many senators are ready to die for him. When told about it, the President reportedly replied “that’s good so we can clean up that place too.”
I know Boracay is still a work in progress, but I think the President deserves high marks if he continues to show the kind of political will we have never seen before from any President on any issue.
But it is early days and we shall see what happens soon enough. We can’t even be sure government can implement plans to limit the number of people going into the island. A DENR study on the island’s carrying capacity reportedly shows Boracay can only support 19,125 tourists per day, and daily arrivals must be kept at 6,405. There are already too many rooms there if those are the numbers.
Governing Boracay is not easy. Indeed, there is a report that this Chinese operator supposedly managed to keep his casino operating all that time Boracay was supposed to be closed.
This explains the comment of a reporter who visited Boracay a few weeks ago that her Caticlan flight from Manila was carrying a full load of passengers, mostly Chinese and possibly Korean. Yun pala.
When official attention on the island fades, a lot of miracles can start to happen. Top officials cannot always be on the island, after all.
Still, I think DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu deserves a big congratulatory hug from every right thinking Filipino for how he has handled this delicate assignment. I heard the former general spent a lot of weekends there personally supervising work.
Many of the establishments violating environmental rules wouldn’t have been caught if the general didn’t personally lead some of the inspections. This is the kind of hands-on devotion to duty we need from our officials.
There is also this story that the general was visited by a very influential person to intercede for a hotel group caught faking their environmental clearance.
General Cimatu courteously explained the case and the person was said to have been furious that he was misled by the hotel owner. When the President heard about this, he only said he was not surprised Cimatu acted in the highest standards of public service.
Between Cimatu and DILG Secretary Eduardo Año, the heavy lifting part of cleaning up Boracay has been carried out well. But Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo Puyat will continue to need all of their help to sustain the gains of the clean up drive.
The three Cabinet secretaries jointly wrote Pagcor seeking the cancellation of the licenses of the existing and prospective casinos in Boracay. While Pagcor’s official statements support this request, it is also clear they want some exemptions to the President’s order. It is good to know that the President has not been convinced.
At this point, I am looking at Boracay as a test case to prove that Filipinos can implement laws with no fear or favor the way the Singaporeans do.
Remember that I once had a proposal for us to lease out a large enough island to the Singaporeans for them to transform it into another Singapore. Many of us have after all, given up on the ability of our officials to govern in a manner that would bring confidence needed to boost our economy.
Maybe, if President Duterte keeps up with his strong display of political will on Boracay, this is the one island that will show to the world what we are capable if we put our minds and hearts to it. So far, so good.
The President and the Cabinet members assigned to Boracay’s rehabilitation have turned down the usual favor seeking politicians and business people.
The beauty of it all is that the President didn’t even have to declare martial law in Boracay. Okay, may nakalusot na isang gambling operator, but that is now being dealt with firmly too.
The next item on the agenda should be the creation of a Boracay authority to manage the day-to-day operations of the island. The municipality of Malay to which Boracay belongs should be limited to collecting property taxes.
The plan is to have an executive order creating the authority, but eventually a law is needed to override the rights of Malay town under the Local Government Code. It is election campaign season, so that law will have to wait. In the meantime, Duterte’s word will be the law to keep Boracay as pleasant as it now is again.
Then we should do the same things to clean up other tourist spots that are also starting to show the pitfalls of over commercialization. Siargao, Coron, El Nido are among the towns we ought to manage well so as not to lose them to environmental damage.
Just like Boracay, government should determine the carrying capacities of the other tourist sites so that we do not overburden the environment. Proposals like that underwater park in Coron should be carefully studied first.
As Boracay re-opens today, we can show the world we can do it naman pala. Hopefully, President Duterte will start using this same political will to tackle EDSA traffic, corruption and red tape among other national ills. That should compensate for his bad mouth.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco
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