MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will implement several changes to reduce the number of people flocking to the so-called Manila Baywalk Dolomite Beach, such as limiting the number of visitors at a given time.
The changes in rules came after over 120,000 people trooped to the artificial white sand beach on Sunday, raising concerns on compliance with health protocols set by the government.
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“Observance of minimum public health standards will be strictly observed by implementing measures to meet the capacity of the area to avoid overcrowding and give way to repairs in some parts of the beach,” DENR Undersecretary Jonas Leones said in a briefing on Tuesday.
Leones said the agency will limit the number of visitors to 4,000 to 5,000 at a given time.
The DENR will also implement a rotation and cinema approach when accepting people. Under this, visitors will be given stubs to enter the destination and be allotted only two hours to stay there.
“After two hours, they will leave. We’ll be asking them to leave and we will give time to prepare the area for one hour. After that, we’ll accept another batch of 4,000 individuals to enter,” the environment official said.
Leones said children aged 11 and below are not allowed inside the beach area, clarifying an earlier statement that the ban include those aged 12.
The destination will be closed down on Fridays for maintenance work.
There will also be special lanes for persons with disabilities, senior citizens and pregnant women.
DENR officials said authorities have no problem managing the crowds during weekdays, but there is a massive influx of visitors during weekends.
According to Manila Bay Coordinating Office Executive Director Jacob Meimban, the number of people who flocked the artificial beach ballooned to 121,744 on October 24 from around 25,000 people on October 17.
The Department of Health earlier said the overcrowding of people in the area violated rules set by the pandemic task force.
Leones said the incident is a “wake-up call” to increase the number of public spaces, especially in urban areas.