Panay News | PEOPLE POWWOW Boracay goes ‘green’ again

THE OTHER night, a TV newscast played a video clip of the beach of Boracay in its greenest “splendor”. The white sand thereat had disappeared, covered anew by a carpet of moss splashing ashore. The newscaster sounded fair when he echoed the assurance of the islanders that it was just a “temporary” aberration characterizing the onset of summer.

But the news was not really news; I had reported it in this corner three years ago while on a three-day vacation in Boracay. Suspicious that it was aggravated by worsening pollution emanating from nearby septic tanks and poor drainage, I begged of the municipal government of Malay, Aklan to solve the pollution problem. It was around 9 a.m. one morning when photojournalist Ric Octavio and I tried to see the then mayor, John Tan, but in vain; the security guards said he was still asleep in his room at Casa Pilar.

Until now, the hoteliers, restaurateurs and shop owners leave it to their staff to rake up the accumulated “green carpet” every morning. But the moss always tends to add up with every wave breaking over the beach.

It is alarming that three years have passed with no solution to the problem emerging. Moss is not “natural” in a tourist haven that is supposed to attract swimmers. Because it is not in its normal habitat, moss on the beach is clearly a pollutant, even on the assumption that it’s not toxic by itself.

Moss is a fibrous plant that normally grows on damp stone and wood, or even on a shipwreck under the sea. No matter how infrequent it appears, it is never a welcome site on a tourist “paradise”; it could discourage first-time tourists from coming back.

Of course, objectors may shrug off the warning by citing statistics. It is no secret that Boracay is the biggest contributor to the income of the province of Aklan, what with an unprecedented 1.7 million foreign and local tourists recorded in the entire year 2016.

If I heard it right from Regional Director Helen Catalbas of the Department of Tourism, thousands of international tourists on three cruise ships are coming to Boracay between now and the end of this month.

Do we have to wait for reversal of tourist volume to act decisively?

Let this be another wake-up call to local authorities. Either they act now and prevent further degradation of the island, or lose the tourists who lay the golden eggs.

If truth be told, the island no longer projects the ambiance of a natural hideaway. High-rise and air-conditioned hotels like those in Metro Manila now line the beachfront, replacing the bamboo-and-nipa cottages. Were it not for the surrounding white-sand beach, the place could be a mistaken for any other Philippine city where no one could escape air pollution belched by tricycles running on narrow roads that betray poor infrastructure planning.

The shopping area known as The Mall reminds us of the crowded shops in space-starved Divisoria and Baclaran markets in Metro Manila. The narrow roads, barely able to accommodate vehicles coming from opposite directions, betray the place’s lack of development planning.

Boracay is no longer what it used to be when Panay News founder Danny Fajardo and I first visited the island in 1982. There was not yet a single concrete building lining the beach front.  Spaced far between were a score of bamboo-and-nipa huts and carinderias. We rented a two-bedroom hut for an overnight stay at twenty-five pesos only.

Change has indeed come to Boracay.  But as to whether it’s an environment-friendly change, your guess is as good as mine./PN

Uncertain post-Duterte scenario

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

TWO unpalatable facts haunt President Rodrigo Duterte: disease and old age. By his own admission, he suffers from the spine-degenerative Buerger’s disease which he caught from years of cigarette smoking; and which, according to Dr. Irene Vergara of the University of Santo Tomas Hospital, forced him to quit smoking. It causes arterial swelling and blood clots, thus restricting normal blood circulation.

To free himself from pain, he takes Fentanyl, a regulated, stronger-than-morphine opioid.

Is Buerger’s the reason why he has repeatedly “joked” about dying? A case in point was when he told an audience of Filipinos in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Dec. 13, 2016, “This is my last hurrah. I am not sure if I will still be around by the end of my term.”

Based on the latest finding of the World Health Organization, the average person residing in the Philippines has a lifespan of 68.5 years.  Duterte is older at 71 going on 72 come March 28.

The President’s health and age, no doubt, are primordial reasons why both his political allies and adversaries worry over their own future.  Although the issue on presidential succession is well defined in the Constitution, “spare tire” Vice President Leni Robredo faces the possibility of being booted out because of the “electoral fraud” protest lodged against her by contender Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

We therefore don’t see the “vice” stepping up over and above the diverse pro-Duterte political forces who would scramble for power among themselves in case Duterte fades away amid a supposed destabilization plot which Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez attributes to “allies of former President Aquino.”

But how could the opposition Liberal Party (LP) seize power when most of its members have already jumped over the administration bandwagon? It could only do so in convergence with disgruntled elements within the Duterte circle, including sympathizers of incarcerated Sen. Leila de Lima and dismissed National Irrigation Authority administrator Peter Laviña.

The “courage” of Sen. Antonio Trillanes, steadfast in accusing Duterte of stashing away P2.4 billion in hidden bank accounts, implies undisclosed strong connections – say, with his “mistahs” at the Philippine Military Academy who now occupies high positions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Then, too, the confession of a retired police officer, SPO3 Arthur Lascañas on his involvement in the Davao Death Squad (DDS) killings when Duterte was still mayor of Davao City – in effect reversing his denial before a Senate inquiry – bolsters the earlier testimony of another self-implicating cop, Edgardo Matobato.   

It’s a paradox that the two have found “safety” in holding Duterte liable for ordering them to eliminate suspected drug pushers and critical broadcaster Jun Porras Pala; and for having also named the other cops in the alleged operation.  Why would they risk their lives if they were not telling the truth?

The Matobato-Lascañas exposés are among the fodders that two prestigious human rights organizations – Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – have used in urging the United Nations’ Human Rights Council to investigate the “human rights calamity in the Philippines.”

A defiant Duterte talked back last Thursday, “When you kill criminals, it is not a crime against humanity. The criminals have no humanity.”

Rather than cultivate “killings fields”, shouldn’t the President have sought the intervention of his Chinese friend and counterpart, President Xi Jin Ping? As admitted by spokesman Derrick Carreon of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, “The majority of the meth we have come from China.” 

Remember, China is the ally Duterte has embraced at the expense of the United States.

But then, let Digong Duterte be reminded that the Americans had played a part in the unexpected downfall of used-to-be popular President Ferdinand Marcos./PN