Online petition to save Boracay from environmental degradation launched

An online petition is urging President Duterte to save Boracay Island, the country’s premier and world-renowned beach destination in the muncipality of Malay.

 The online petition on www.change.org, “A Call to Action to Save One of the World’s Best Island from Verge of Extinction” was initiated by Jay Garmino.

“The influx of tourists coming to the island drives more foreign developers that are potential risks to the sustainability of Boracay’s environment, ecosystems and natural resources,” Garmino warned.

 Garmino emphasized that the local government of Malay issued 296 new building permits last year and only within a period of three months.

 “This unsustainable tourism development contributes to coastal and ecological degradation, social and cultural dislocation, rapid growth of island population, rampant solid waste disposal and increasing numbers of illegal connection of sewerage disposal where some of this were thrown out at the shoreline of Bulabog beach,” Garmino lamented.

 The petitioner called on Duterte to abolish issuance of building permits in Boracay as well as regulate and limit the number of people as “the island is too small for the growing population.”