BORACAY – “Maling-mali.” Really wrong. This was how Tourism secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat described the overcrowding of visitors in Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan during Lent last week.
She wasn’t impressed at all that the number of visitors in Western Visayas’ famous tourist attraction went beyond the recommended daily threshold of 19,215 people.
“We are asking the mayor to explain because he is answerable for this. Maling-mali eh,” Romulo-Puyat said.
The mayor of Malay town which has jurisdiction over Boracay Island is Floribar Bautista. He could not be reached for comment as of this writing.
“Considering that the local government unit is still under Alert Level 1 status, strict implementation of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) infections must be considered, including the ideal volume of tourists within a given period,” said Romulo-Puyat.
Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed 21,252 tourists visited Boracay Island on April 14 (Maundy Thursday) and these ballooned to 22,519 on April 15 (Good Friday).
“’Yung carrying capacity to protect the island from over-tourism after rehabilitation na 19,215 per day was not even breached noong pre-pandemic,” Ro mulo-Puyat said in a press conference on Monday.
She recalled the summer outdoor party LaBoracay in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic – only 14,000 visitors were allowed into the island each day.
The Tourism secretary urged the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to take “appropriate action” against the local government of Malay.
In response, Interior secretary Eduardo Año said in a separate statement that he would be issuing an advisory and warning to the Malay local government.
“We must adhere to the defined carrying capacity of Boracay which is 19,215 visitors. The local government should implement it to ensure the safety and health of tourists and residents, and protect the environment,” said Año.
Boracay was closed off to tourists for a massive six-month environmental cleanup and rehabilitation beginning April 2018. It reopened to tourism activities in October of the same year but the government put a cap to the number of tourists that the island could accommodate daily – the so-called carrying capacity at 19,215 persons.
Despite the cap, Boracay tourism stakeholders welcomed the island’s October 2018 reopening. But just a year after, efforts to restart the local tourism industry hobbled again, this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic that struck the country. The number of Boracay’s tourists dropped to April 2018 levels due to quarantine restrictions.
Beginning late last year, quarantine restrictions in the island were gradually lifted. But tourists, especially from abroad – the main source of Malay’s tourism revenues – were hard to come by.
It was only two months ago when tourist arrivals started picking up again – this was when COVID-19 cases started to dwindle and there was a massive vaccination of islanders and workers./PN
