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With vendors hawking their wares from imitation signature sunglasses
to miniature wooden galleons (who buys these?), phallic banana boats
zipping through the water with muscular guys holding on tight, and
fast food stalls cropping up like mushrooms on cow dung, Boracay, or
“Bora” as some people from “Emba” annoyingly call it, is
becoming more and more like the rest of the Philippines—crowded,
polluted, segregated, and corrupt.
I’m not complaining about its
commercialization like some hypocrites who gripe about the presence
of Andok’s Chicken while they enjoy their tasty Yellow Cab pizza
delivered to their five-star hotel room. I’m just pointing out the
scary pattern I see developing and our role in shaping it.
Last year, approximately 596,707 tourists
visited the island. That means half a million people relieving
themselves of bodily fluids and solids underwater and above water,
throwing their trash along the beach, consuming the water supply,
using electricity, riding the smog belching tricycles, and bringing
sand concealed in their pockets and underpants. The visitors will
only increase in the next few years, which means more deterioration
(and hopefully some Russian nudity) on the island. And no one is
paying for the “hidden cost” of this decay except maybe our
grandchildren.
So, why not tack on the real cost of going to
Boracay by adding a beach toll of say P100 per day with a 50-percent
discount for kids, senior citizens, and midgets. The funds generated
could subsidize the retrofitting of two-stroke engines of tricycles,
the garbage collection and disposal, and the building of other
environmentally friendly programs.
We can also stop the classism, which can be
witnessed by the general quality of the establishments and people
from the different stations: the high society station, the middle
class station, and the “jologs” station. The whole island should
raise their prices by about 100 percent to cater to one class—the
upper class, who are educated enough to not throw plastic bags in
the ocean and not wear t-shirts over their bikinis. With this price
increase, there will be a drastic reduction in dudes wearing Kobe
Bryant basketball jerseys at the beach. Call it environmental
elitism.
Recently, the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources. ordered a moratorium on construction on the
island, but its enforcement was just as effective as the ban on
those cheesy henna tattoos mandated by the hotels that still keep
getting erected. The ban, which was designed to buy some time to
re-plan how Boracay was going to sustain its development, became a
money making scheme for some officials who are known to exploit most
regulatory laws.
With the island earning an annual income of
about P10,000,000,000, it is no wonder everyone is fighting for a
piece of the action. The big question is do we take action or do we
just sit back, enjoy the sun, and watch the resorts haul the white
sand away to their side.
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