Paradise Threatened

Boracay then and now

By Teodoro Y. Montelibano

Juan Elizalde, son of Freddie Elizalde of the old, prominent Filipino-Spanish Elizalde family recounted how his father stumbled upon Boracay in the early 1970s. "One day, my dad was flying back to Manila from Negros where we had a sugar central and he asked the pilot to make a detour, towards Panay and see if they could find this virgin, white sand island he’d heard stories of."

His father’s plane combed the northeastern coast of Panay Island and then, there it was - a strip of pure white sand surrounded by crystal-clear emerald blue seawaters. It was stunning even as Freddie Elizalde and his party gazed at it from several thousand feet in the air. "The coordinates were taken and later, my dad asked some people in Roxas (capital of Capiz province, adjoining Aklan province where Boracay Island is located) to check out the island."

Freddie Elizalde’s people had to go by jeepney through rough roads to Kalibo (capital of Aklan) and barely made it halfway to Caticlan, the town across Boracay which today, serves as the jump-off point to the island. Midway to Caticlan, there were no longer roads to speak of, so the party got off their vehicle, walked to the coast, hired a banca and sailed four hours to Boracay.

"When they got there," continued Juan Elizalde, "the guys discovered this untouched beautiful island which was practically uninhabited." They also found an airstrip built by the Japanese in World War II in Caticlan. "It was an empty field with tall cogon grass and there was nothing there. My dad landed on that grass airstrip on his first trip there, got on board a boat with his party and crossed over to the island," he added.

A major irritant is also the inability by local authorities to rid Boracay’s famed shoreline of boats which continue to drop anchor from one end of the beach to the other, like one huge parking lot.

Imagine seeing for the first time all that gleaming, silken flour-like white sand stretching forever to meet, at some heavenly point, blue sea and sky. There were no huts or resorts built on the beach to mar the lucent scenery; no hawkers vending fake watches, cheap sunglasses, beads and pearls of dubious source and value; no overly-sweetened drinks and shakes made of 95% water and 5% fruit; no plastic wrappers, cans of beer and softdrink bottles dirtying up the shoreline; no motorcycles and tricycles polluting the air with diesel fuel and jarring the atmosphere with the sound of their engines; no sailboats sporting either Globe or Smart logos on their sails anchored in front of the beach and using the clear blue-green waters near the shore like a giant parking lot; no electronic bubble gum dance music blaring; there was no electricity, and at night, the island was aglow only with the soft glimmer of coco oil-lit lamps flickering in the dark.

Boracay was pristine until the late 1980s. It was in 1981 when Elizalde said he first saw foreigners on the island. "During those days, they could go to the local village in Manoc Manoc, the south side of White Beach (where Boat Station 3 is at present) and the locals would welcome them in their homes."

Elizalde recalled good memories of bonfires on the beach at twilight as bancas come in to shore from the sea, their hulls brimming with fresh, live fish. "It was incredible." he said.

Resorts were built and development activities in Boracay were done without conforming to the plan’s guidelines. Now, it’s just total chaos

Commercialization came in the late 1980s. People began building more resorts, mostly in the Boat Station 3 area down south. "That was where most of the little places, eateries and restaurants were concentrated as well as where the local population also started to expand (even as) our area in the north was still mostly quiet," recalled Elizalde. "Then in the 1990s, trash came in, fights occurred, the Boracay police force was organized. Things also began to go much faster, people started to use cement a lot, electricity came and all these wires and posts were put up all over."

Elizalde said he saw the first tricycles allowed on the island in the early 1990s. "One year after they were let in, there must’ve been 300 tricycles in the island." Today, close to a thousand – maybe more - tricycles, motorcycles and scooters swarm all over Boracay’s cemented back roads. There is talk that once the jetty port being constructed on the island’s White Beach’s southernmost tip is finished, more mini-vans which some of the bigger resort establishments now use, will be brought in, adding to the volume of traffic of motor vehicles in Boracay.

In the late 1980s, during the Aquino administration, a master development plan was drawn up by the Department of Tourism. The plan, according to sources, was pretty thorough but apparently, those in power both in the local and national governments pretty much ignored it. "It was either forgotten or deliberately shelved," said one source who requested anonymity. "Resorts were built and development activities in Boracay were done without conforming to the plan’s guidelines. Now, it’s just total chaos. People, including both developers of establishments and the local government - just got greedier and greedier."

Unregulated commercialism over the years is now starting to result in environmental problems which, if left unchecked, seriously threatens Boracay’s fragile ecosystem. Many of these problems are linked to the failure by local officials in preventing, for instance, the building of humongous multi-storey resort establishments on the island some of which allegedly do not care if their wastewater makes its way to the sea.

A major irritant is also the inability by local authorities to rid Boracay’s famed shoreline of boats which continue to drop anchor in waters fronting White Beach, thus using the sea, from one end of the Beach to the other, like one huge parking lot.

Karen Villarica Reina, president of the Boracay Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) says "we’ve been hounding both the local and national authorities to do something about these problems but its like knocking on a concrete wall."

In late 2004, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has warned that unless households and commercial establishments’ sewerage systems are connected to the island’s centralized water-treatment plant, Boracay runs the risk of seeing a repeat of the outbreak of coliform (human fecal bacteria) that appeared in its seawaters as a result of untreated wastewater in 1997.

To date, only 30% of some 3,000 households in three barangays and only half of 440 resorts and other commercial establishments in Boracay are connected to the treatment plant built by the Philippine Tourism Authority in 2003.

Still, despite these problems and irritants, people continue to come in droves to the island.

Boracay’s unique assets are being compromised by the local government’s inability to regulate commerce and initiate serious efforts to prevent further degradation in the island. The President has created an Eminent Persons Group which she has asked Inigo Zobel to head. The Group is supposed to act as an advisory entity in development and tourism activities in the island.

Zobel, who owns a hilltop house in Boracay’s North Beach, is said to be hesitant in heading the Group unless it is given teeth and some real functions in dispensing with its mandate.

Until that happens, the view is that the Group will be inutile in the face of local officials who seem clueless or are downright apathetic about preserving the invaluable treasure they have power over and are responsible for.

And unless immediate, willful efforts backed by a National Government serious in using its political muscle to do something about this urgent matter, this priceless gem of an island, the crown jewel of Philippine tourism, will soon be tarnished beyond repair, forever.