DENR EXECS LIABLE, TOO

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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Monday, March 5, 2018
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Boracay’s environmental woes

ILOILO City – Full accountability will be exacted from Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officials and personnel tasked to protect Boracay Island but failed to do so, according to Undersecretary Rodolfo Garcia.

DENR would investigate such personnel to see if they conspired with Boracay establishments in violating environmental laws or neglected to carry out their tasks, he said.

Upon the order of President Rodrigo Duterte, DENR has kicked off a six-month mission to clean Boracay up.

“I don’t think anybody should go scot-free if he or she committed something wrong,” said Garcia.

Boracay is under the jurisdiction of DENR Region 6.

In an interview last week, DENR Region 6 director Jim Sampulna insisted he was doing his best to address environmental problems in Boracay.

Still, he said, he could only do so much “because hindi ako ang hari ng Boracay.”

DENR’s priority is ridding Boracay of both pollution and private establishments’ encroachment on public land.

This does not, however, mean the department is no longer going after its personnel and other parties responsible for the island’s degradation, said Garcia.

The department aims to restore Boracay to its near-original state.

The major problem is poor enforcement and non-compliance to environmental laws, according to Sen. Loren Legarda, an environmentalist.

Figures from DENR showed that 17.5 million liters of wastewater is generated in Boracay every day, the senator said, but only about half is treated properly.

Thirty to 40 percent of the untreated wastewater comes from private households while the rest from business establishments, according to the DENR.

“If we simply comply with environmental laws, especially the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Law, we would not have to be here. But this is not just an issue to point to the local government and other government agencies,” the senator said. “We are all in this together.”

Environment secretary Roy Cimatu deployed several DENR regional personnel to ask Boracay establishments with environmental violations to explain their side.

Some establishments in Boracay are not connected to waste treatment facilities and directly release untreated wastewater into the environment.

“Such establishments must put up their respective water treatment facilities if they are unable to connect to the island’s water treatment plants,” said DENR Undersecretary Jonas Leones.

At Friday last week’s Senate probe on Boracay, DENR recommended for the creation of an entity to ensure the strict implementation of environmental laws.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has created a 12-person team to investigate and file charges against local government officials and personnel and private individuals liable for the environmental problems of Boracay Island.

The team will, among others, look into the use of the environmental fee collected by the local government of Malay, Aklan if it is according to the law, said DILG officer-in-charge Eduardo Año.

The environmental fee is P75. It is collected from all tourists entering Boracay.

“Their investigation shall cover a period of 10 years, reckoning from the year 2008 up to 2018. I expect them to submit a comprehensive report on the result of their probe as soon as possible,” said Año.

The island is under the jurisdiction of Malay town.

The Boracay Investigating Team (BIT) would do its probe on government officials and employees soon, especially those involved in giving permits to establishments.

“All those directly involved in the issuance of permits to areas that are operating establishments illegally and conniving with officials will not be spared from this investigation,” said Año.

The creation of the BIT is in the exercise of DILG’s supervisory power over local government units and to make sure the Boracay crisis does not happen again.

He earlier recommended placing Boracay under a state of calamity to hasten the mitigation response and rehabilitation efforts of the national government and the private sector. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
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