ILOILO City – When Boracay Island reopens on Oct. 26 tourists should stay only in resorts and hotels adhering to government rules and regulations, according to Department of Tourism (DOT) Region 6 director Helen Catalbas.
To guide tourists, DOT would be issuing weekly public advisories on compliant tourism establishments beginning next week.
The advisories would be released through mainstream media and social media, said Catalbas yesterday.
Only 71 of the 440 hotels and inns inspected in Boracay were fully-compliant so far, according to Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) during the Senate’s Aug. 20 hearing on Boracay’s rehabilitation.
There were 2,384 tourism establishments in the famous tourist destination.
Catalbas said between 3,000 to 5,000 rooms may be available to accommodate tourists when Boracay reopens after six months of closure for a massive cleanup.
Only fully compliant establishments would be allowed to operate.
“Advice namon nga dapat nga atendiron nila anay ang ila compliance kay karon budlayan man sila kun indi man sila ka-comply,” said Catalbas.
According to DOT undersecretary Arturo Boncato at the recent Senate hearing, “The strategy is for us to open quietly. There would be no major fanfare, no major event.”
“In fact we wanted just to have some sort of soft opening and the directive of our Secretary is to really phase, to do the opening in phases,” he said.
Citing official DOT records, Boncato said there were around 15,000 rooms on the island. But this may reach up to 20,000 rooms, he said, if the figures were based on the survey of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) since there were businessmen operating “under the radar.”
“We have no idea at this point kung how many of those establishments can comply with the DILG and DENR clearances, so nag-aabang po kami. By the time that comes, we will immediately accredit,” Boncato said.
An accreditation from the DOT is the last requirement before business establishments can operate on the island.
On targeted compliance percentage in terms of wastewater management, DENR undersecretary Ernesto Adobo Jr. said the government interagency rehabilitation group was relying on the establishments to put up their respective sewage treatment plants (STPs).
“Within the six-month rehabilitation period, we are banking on the installation of STPs and we will be able to at least target an 80 percent of those,” he said.
The remaining 20 percent won’t be allowed to operate until they have complied, he stressed.
With respect to the water sewage, DILG’s Densing said the group was dependent on DENR’s pronouncement due to its “very technical” nature. But he explained that establishments were required to tap into the main sewer line in the island.
Asked by Sen. Cynthia Villar if only 30 percent of the establishments opening on Oct. 26 would be acceptable, Densing was optimistic the island would still be operational.
Densing said the public has to take into account that many of the violators they inspected had no building permits or mayor’s permit at all, and even Social Security System or PhilHealth membership for their employees.
“Most of these are really the big ones, wala silang building permits. We’re are trying to let them fill in those deficiencies, so bakit natin papayagan na ‘yung malalaking establishments na (continuous) pa ring mag-operate? Although labas na po ito sa isyu ng tubig, it’s an issue of governance (Most of these are really the big ones, they don’t have building permits. We are trying to let them fill in those deficiencies, so why should we allow those big establishments continue to operate? Although this is beyond the issue of wastewater, it’s an issue of governance),” the DILG official said. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
