EDITORIAL - Duterte should go after Boracay officials

It is one thing to bite the bullet and close Boracay for a year just to allow its fragile ecosystem to mend and heal and never mind the cost to the economy as well as the dislocation and displacement of its various stakeholders. It is another to just turn the other cheek on those who should be held accountable for the mess they created in the world-renowned island.

Let's face it, all the depredations that happened in Boracay could not have happened without the complicity and tolerance of those who are supposed to take care of the island and maintain order there. A ten-square-kilometer island visited annually by two million tourists is hardly the place where anything goes unnoticed. It is impossible to imagine the rape of Boracay could not have drawn even the most perfunctory official attention.

A promotional photo of a resort published by the Philippine Star on its front page last Friday shows it rising majestically on a cliffside that is supposed to be a no-build zone. The official line now is that the resort did not have all the necessary permits. Be that as it may, the resort did not just appear miraculously one day. Judging by its appearance, clearly it must have taken at the very least one year to build.

So how come it was able to slowly rise toward completion without attracting official attention and then bring forth the fact that it lacked all the necessary permits? Clearly it was allowed to proceed and only is being closed after no less than the president himself discovered just how big a mess Boracay had become and unleashed the full might of government to bring Boracay back to its original state.

But wait a minute. We seem to be missing something here. While it is a bitter pill for many people to swallow, this closing of Boracay for a year and enduring the consequences of such closure -lost business opportunities, lost jobs, lost prestige- it is wrong, unjust, unfair, and immoral to let a few people off the hook when clearly they are the most responsible for the mess.

Illegal structures and the destruction of the environment are not the fault of their builders and perpetrators alone. The greater part of the blame lies with those who allowed such things to happen. Illegal structures could not rise and the environment could not be destroyed if officials are vigilant and cognizant of their responsibilities. If President Duterte does not go after these corrupt officials, then all the hooplah about Boracay is just an expensive sham.

Related video: