Boracay pollution puts damper on RP tourism industry

Boracay pollution puts damper on RP tourism industry

By Dolly Aglay

BORACAY, Philippines (Reuter): Islanders gargle its sea water
and officials frolic on its dazzling beach -- but tourists are
turning away from the paradise island of Boracay.

"We got a lot of cancellations. The damage has been done,"
Briton Jason Probyn, a resort operator on the Philippines' most
famous resort island, lamented on Sunday.

"We have worked for years to build the image of Boracay. Now
we have to do it all over again."

Lying 450 km (280 miles) south of Manila, Boracay has been
dubbed an "island paradise". Its clear blue waters and miles of
powdery white sand draw 200,000 foreign tourists every year.

But that image was soiled on June 30, when Environment
Secretary Victor Ramos declared the island resort "a disaster
area", saying human waste had leaked into the sea water,
infecting it with coliform bacteria which causes diarrhea,
typhoid and skin diseases.

The contamination was so heavy it will take 10 years to clean
it up, he said.

The shock announcement threw tourism officials into a frenzy,
prompted Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor to dive into Boracay's
troubled waters to back her claim that they were as pristine as
ever, and drove President Fidel Ramos to call an emergency
meeting.

In a humiliating climbdown for Secretary Ramos, no relation to
the president, a government statement on Friday insisted that the
environment department's findings were based on outdated data and
that Boracay was safe for swimming after all.

"I got a little excited," a chastened-looking Secretary Ramos
said as he emerged from the emergency meeting.

But far from quelling fears, the about-face provoked the wrath
of Manila's pugnacious media.

"The government produced a worse disaster than Boracay,"
political analyst Amando Doronila wrote in the Philippine Daily
Inquirer newspaper on Sunday.

"The meeting produced a cover-up that swept away with a 'feel
good' press release the Boracay pollution more summarily than the
southwest monsoon currents, without in any way reducing the level
of disease-causing micro-organisms lurking in the waters at the
beaches," he said.

Publisher Max Soliven of the Philippine Star rebuked the
environment secretary for backing down. "(Boracay's) reputation
is zilch. Doublespeak won't save the day," he said.

Senators have demanded Victor Ramos's head and called for a
public inquiry.

Environment undersecretary Virgilio Marcelo added fuel to the
row by insisting that the environment department's findings about
a high level of bacteria at Boracay were conclusive.

"We don't care if we lose billions of dollars in revenue if we
can save one life," Marcelo said.

Tests

President Fidel Ramos ordered new tests to be conducted by
representatives from the health, environment, science and tourism
departments to confirm an earlier study, said Health Secretary
Carmencita Reodica.

But the uproar in Manila was lost on the residents of Boracay,
whose livelihood depends on the influx of tourists to the island.

Diving instructor Christopher Cruz scooped up sea water with
his bare hands and gargled it.

"This is another fine day in paradise," he told Reuters.

Vendor Lorena Tubi, one of the island's 6,000 residents, said
her 10-year-old son bathed everyday in the sea and all the boy
ever got was a deeper tan.

Australian Ron Grenfell brought his wife and two children to
Boracay, unfazed by the report that the water was contaminated.

"We have been swimming for almost a week now. There was
nothing," he said.

"If there is a problem, we could have contracted eye and ear
infections," said Australian Greg Stanford, himself a diving
instructor who has worked on the island for 10 years.

Residents said the shock created by the initial negative
report on Boracay should remind everybody of the potential
ecological problems that the island resort faces.

For one, hotels and other businesses are rising faster than
the rudimentary sewerage and waste disposal system can cope, and
no end to development is in sight, residents said.

Resort owners said they do not know of any hotel in the island
pumping out raw sewage. Most of the hotels have concrete septic
tanks and when these are full they close them and build new ones.

Resort owners said the local government requires them to build
the concrete septic tanks.

So dramatically has Boracay changed that beachfront land
prices have soared to 13,000 pesos (US$495) per square metre
compared to 350 pesos ($13) in 1985.

Big property developers are cashing in.

Fairways Bluewater and Country Club Inc is investing more than
five billion pesos to turn a 117-hectare (288-acre) property into
a commercial and residential area.

Primetown Property Group Inc is building upscale condominiums
while the country's premiere real estate developer, Ayala group,
has acquired an 80-hectare (197-acre) property of its own.

"It was not the same 10 years ago," Stanford said. "There's
development, development everywhere...Boracay is turning into a
concrete jungle."