A certain Frank Hoefsmit, a Belgian from Antwerp residing in Manila, Philippine (according to his Facebook profile information) posted an aerial photo of Boracay Island on Facebook the other day showing the extent to which Boracay has been “developed” to attract even more tourists.
Boracay is a small island in the Philippines located approximately 315 km (196 mi) south of Manila and 2 km off the northwest tip of Panay Island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. Boracay Island and its beaches have received awards from numerous travel publications and agencies. The island comprises the barangays of Manoc-Manoc, Balabag, and Yapak in the municipality of Malay, in Aklan Province. The island is administered by the Philippine Tourism Authority and the provincial government of Aklan. Apart from its white sand beaches, Boracay is also famous for being one of the world’s top destinations for relaxation. It is also emerging among the top destinations for tranquility and nightlife.
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White Beach, the main tourism beach, is about four kilometers long and is lined with resorts, hotels, lodging houses, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses. In the central portion, for about two kilometers, there is a footpath known as the Beachfront Path separating the beach itself from the establishments located along it. North and south of the Beachfront Path, beachfront establishments do literally front along the beach itself. Several roads and paths connect the Beachfront Path with Boracay’s Main Road, a vehicular road which runs the length of the island. At the extreme northern end of White Beach, a footpath runs around the headland there and connects White Beach with Diniwid Beach.
Once a pristine island, Boracay is now noted for overcrowding and over-development and may be on the way towards suffering the same fate as Baguio City, the other “summer capital” of the Philippines. Despite a 2006 ruling declaring Boracay state owned until 2016 to protect it from further degeneration and a 2012 moratorium issued by the Philippine government on building construction in its forested areas, no further progress around its preservation has been observed.
In 2013 a call was made by Sandiwa Heritage Foundation managing director Ricardo Ramos to President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III to do something before the Supreme Court ruling expires in 2016…
“The province of Aklan has progressed as can be seen in Kalibo and other towns. However, the inordinate construction of… establishments and the uncontrolled haphazard developments have led to the wanton deterioration of what was once a pristine paradise,” Ramos said, who suggests creating a presidential task force (composed of the DILG, DENR, DOH, DPWH and DOTC) to address problems confronting the Boracay Island Tourist Zone.
In any case, there are three more years before the state’s ownership of Boracay lapses – and the President can make it his lasting legacy to save Boracay from further degeneration by making it his priority to address sustainable development problems that threaten to turn the famed island into just one more overcrowded, overpopulated and polluted beach resort.
This was two years ago. It seems unlikely given the number of “distractions” President BS Aquino now faces that any further work on preserving the “World’s Best Beach” will materialise.
[NB: Parts of this article were lifted off Wikipedia.org and used in accordance with that site’s Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License consistent with the same license applied by Get Real Post to its content.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The reason this kind of shit happens is that there are way too many government agencies charged with (supposedly) managing the country’s natural resources. They’re all utterly incompetent, underfunded and improperly equipped, and have overlapping remits.
The result is that the whole charade is impossibly complicated for people with good intentions and vulnerable to corruption from people with bad ones.
Which is, of course, the whole point of arranging it that way.
“They’re all utterly incompetent, underfunded and improperly equipped, and have overlapping remits.”
Sounds like nobody is doing their job in their stable or knows not what their job requires.
Not at all. They know exactly what their job is and they do it very effectively: cause as much confusion as possible so that the great and the good can take whatever they want, and then pass the buck to some other agency if somebody complains. The incompetence etc is an important part of achieving that goal.
It’s not incompetence, you fool. These political dynasties, and their Chinese benefactors, know exactly what they’re doing to exploit the arrogant and self-serving gullibility of the Filipino people, with brainwashing media propaganda on how much fun it is in the Philippines, and how proud you can be of all the commercial developments taking place around you, except you don’t get to keep the profit.
Its a sad state of affairs but I’m not surprised. The over-development has been in full swing for the past 15 years (at least). Geeze! These people can’t see past the nose on their face! What a waste!
This overcommercialization of the entire archipelago by the Chinese businesses, and their well-bribed political dynasties, has been going on a longer than 15 years. Thirty-one, long years to be exact, right after the People’s Power got rid of the Marcoses. However, it took more than three decades for the masses to realize that they’d screwed up, when they decided to follow the supposedly “Heroes of the EDSA Revolution,” who are raping the country now. Hindsight being what it is, Filipinos will always be too proud and self-serving to admit they’d made a mistake.
Soon Boracay will be invaded by Squatters. Too much development means Greed. Greed to those who take advantage of huge profit, in exchange for devastation of the natural resources.
Garbage and pollution of all kinds will fester the beautiful Island…
“Boracay is also famous for being one of the world’s top destinations for relaxation. It is also emerging among the top destinations for tranquility and nightlife.”
a contradiction if there ever was one. tranquility and nightlife?? there is no relaxation or tranquility in the philippines. even here in the provinces i am bombarded with noise, noise, noise! i feel like the grinch having to put up with the whos down in whoville. from roosters crowing at every hour of the day to dogs tied up on short leashes and barking at the whisper of a leaf to the boom-boom-boom of speakers down the block and down the street in the next town 2 miles away there is no escape, no relaxation, and no tranquility. stop fooling yourselves. pollution is not just trash in the river, it is also unwanted sound in the air. the philippines is a leader in noise pollution. lets not forget the scooters and tricycles zipping around with no mufflers (because they think it makes them faster) and the loud jeepenys belching thick, black smoke and going boom-boom-boom from the techno music. what a nightmare! in the west the further you go into the country, the less noise you will hear. in the philippines, you cannot escape the noise no matter where you are.
Ha! It’s true. You can live literally in the middle of nowhere and there will still be someone making a godawful noise.
I wonder if the reason Filipinos spend so little time thinking is that they can’t. There’s always some noise pollution rattling their brains.
Incidentally, endless noise has been shown to raise stress levels and is a risk factor to hear t disease. In combination with the sugar- and rice-laden diet, perhaps it has something to do with the nation’s sky-high rate of heart disease.
The serenity of the lulling ocean is a wondrous thing to behold…more precious than the gems coveted and covered in platinum or gold…
But in the case Boracay (and Baguio)…well…not quite.
I have visited Boracay few times and my first visit was 1992 and it was beautiful. My last visit was about 5 years ago and I have seen a lot of changes for the worst and that will be my last visit. I know it is going to happen because it is the same problem I have seen in Puerto Galera in Mindoro.
How do we solve the problem like Boracay’s? Sustainable Tourism Training Program for both public and private stakeholders/ stewards of the island! Education. Respect. Cooperation. NO other way. Help support The Boracay Initiative. – Society for Sustainable Tourism & Development –
How do we solve the problem like Boracay’s? Sustainable Tourism Training for both public and private stakeholders/stewards of the island! It’s all about Education. Respect. Cooperation. that starts with the Political.Will. No other. Support The Boracay Initiative. ~ Society for Sustainable Tourism & Development.
Geez, I wonder where the term, “Concrete Jungle,” came from when it comes to describing what the Chinese businesses, and their well-bribed political dynasties, have been doing to the lush land of this country? You guys need to start giving credit where credit’s due.
GRP: “Thank you, Aeta, for bringing this idea to our attention in your comments a couple of years ago. We were just waiting for you to fade into oblivion before we can start using the idea in our own articles.”
Aeta: “You’re Welcome.”