DENR mandates waste segregation in Boracay

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has ordered the residents, hotel and restaurant owners in this resort island to practice waste segregation effective immediately.

DENR Regional Director Jim Sampulna said Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu has issued a directive to rid Boracay of garbage by July 17.

“The DENR will be filing a case against the local government of [the municipality of] Malay and the members of the Sangguniang Bayan if the order was not properly acted upon. Tourists must also be warned against littering while in Boracay,” Sampulna told the BusinessMirror in an interview last week.

In 2015 the local government of Malay failed to bid the hauling of the garbage from the Boracay Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Barangay Manoc Manoc, resulting in the piling up of garbage that were gathered at the MRF.

Solid waste from households and business establishments are brought to the MRF for segregation and recycling. Those not fit for recycling are brought to the sanitary landfill.

After Ciceron Cawaling was elected mayor of Malay in 2016 he ordered the hauling of garbage from the MRF and transferred to the sanitary landfill in Malay through a barge.

With the coming weather disturbances, unavailable transportation and lack of manpower, the local government is having difficulty in cleaning up the garbage at the MRF. To date, around 20,000 kilograms to 30,000 kg of garbage are yet to be hauled.

On July 3 the DENR, together with its attached agencies, the Environmental Management Board, Mines and GeoSciences Bureau, as well as the provincial offices of DENR on Panay Island, has started a monthlong house-to-house campaign for recycling.

The first week of the campaign was held in the front beach, where hotels, restaurants and other businesses thrive. DENR personnel inspected the waste-management practices of each establishment.

The stakeholders were also advised by a representative of the local government that by July 15 the ban in the use of plastics and Styrofoam materials will be implemented.

Belle Cabesa, representing the Waste Management Department of DENR’s Central Office, said the DENR will soon be sending equipment to Boracay to help in the recycling of garbage on the resort island. For his part, Cawaling said the local government has already come up with a 10-year waste-management plan to rid Boracay of garbage.

Environmental ‘martial law’

The Department of Tourism (DOT)-Western Visayas recommended to Cimatu to declare an environmental “martial law” on this resort island.

Helen Catalbas, DOT regional director, said the proposed environmental martial law is meant to enforce that will ensure the sustainability of the resort island.

Ivene Reyes of Aklan Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office said the DENR is awaiting full details from the DOT on how the proposed martial law would be implemented.

“The DOT, however, is committed to withdraw its accreditation to hotels and restaurants that are not practicing proper segregation scheme,” he said.

Reyes also revealed that the DENR would start this year a study on the carrying capacity of Boracay for tourists, infrastructures and residents.

In the 1980s the DENR has undertaken a study on the carrying capacity of Boracay but the basis then was the amount of available water supply for residents and tourists.

“The DENR needs to update its data on Boracay,” Reyes said.

Environment summit

Maylynn Aguirre-Graf, the newly elected president of the Boracay Foundation Inc. (BFI), said the business group is planning to organize an environment summit soon in order to address various issues.

“The BFI has already conducted four meetings on the planned environment summit. In our recent meeting, we had invited Dr. Miguel Fortes to discuss with us his proposed environmental management plan for Boracay,” said Graf, who is also a councilor and the chairman of the committee on environment in the Sanguniang Bayan of Malay.

Fortes serves as the project manager of the Coastal Ecosystems Conservation and Adaptive Management. He is also a professor of the University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute.

“Fortes has updated us on the environment master plan for Boracay. He submitted to the local government his report in 2015 but it was not implemented. During the proposed environment summit, the master plan will be presented to the stakeholders” to inform them of its content, Graf said.

Graf has been pursuing an environment summit months prior to the 2016 election.

She is also proposing a P25 additional environment fee for tourists, on top of the P75 environmental fee being charged to tourists visiting Boracay.