Reason & Concern

by Ronquillo C. Tolentino

SC Issues Tepo On Boracay Reclamation

By the time this week is over, respondents, in the Caticlan reclamation issue may have had made their comments to the Supreme Court temporary environment protection order (Tepo) issued on June 7, 2011.

Respondents Aklan Provincial Government, the Philippine Reclamation Authority and the Department of Environ-ment and Natural Resources Environment Management Bureau, would verily comment that the Boracay Foundation, Inc. (BFI) petition on the Caticlan reclamation had been taken out of context as the reclamation project is only for 2.6 hectares of Caticlan. No more, no less.

Early on June 2, 2011, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued a press release stressing that the reclamation project covered in an Environ-mental Compliance Certificate (ECC) issued included only 2.6 hectares on the Caticlan side, but not the bigger portion of the project of 37 hectares, which includes the Boracay side. This press release came immediately after BFI filed a continuing writ of mandamus and petitioned the high court to issue a Tepo against the reclamation project. The Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) approved the reclamation project in April 2010. The PRA and the provincial government of Aklan entered into a memorandum of agreement in May 2010 and subsequently a notice to proceed was issued in October 2010.　

Probably, respondents shall file a motion to lift Tepo. A motion to dismiss is not allowed under the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases.

With the high court Tepo on the reclamation issue, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) findings on Boracay erosions had been the talk of some environmentalists and Boracay observers lately albeit the findings are of 2009 vintage.
　

I remember the March 19, 2009 Kristine Servando’s Newsbreak/abs-cbn NEWS.com commentary headline Boracay threatened by erosions. Servando quoted Dr. Miguel Fortes, head of the UNESCO’s National Committee on Marine Science (NCMS) who said : "The island is dying a slow death at the moment. That is erosion. It is like the sea is eating up the beach. If it continues unabated, maybe the island will be submerged, or the white sand is gone or reduced… the signs are there. Even for now, even if it’s isolated but obvious, give it time where nothing substantial will be done, they will lose their sand."

Fortes, according to Servando’s commentary, explained that erosion is occurring too rapidly, not because of over-crowding, but mainly because resorts and locals have built "environmentally unfriendly" structures like sea walls, which have blocked the natural flow of the current that naturally replenishes the beach. Fortes stressed that sand should only move in and out of the shore, in and out, and it does not move to other islands. They have modified (natural processes) by constructing something, water and air are hindered, changing move pattern, on the coast so that erosion becomes more dominant, Fortes said.

Fortes noted the erosion happening at Diniwid, described in the Servando’s commentary as a 280-meter long stretch of beach in the southern part of Boracay island, known for its powdery white sand.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) - Boracay Vice President Peter Brugger who had sought the intervention of the Department of Tourism and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources made an account as quoted in the Servando commentary "that many establishments in the northern part of Diniwid beach violated building laws and ordinances inclusive of no building or business permits, building permanent structures on main reserves or no build zones and the set back from the tide mark."

Servando’s lead sentence in her commentary is also an appropriate concluding sentence, thus: "Imagining Boracay Island in Aklan without its pristine white sands is like imagining an oasis without water." /MP