Now its El Nido, Palawan.
After guiding the world renowned Boracay island
to its much needed rehabilitation, government is not sitting on its laurels.
The Duterte administration just launched the
rehabilitation of another world known tourist destination- the beautiful resort
town of El Nido in the province of Palawan.
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| Trash seen here floating in one of El Nido's top tourist draw - Secret lagoon (photo credit to original owner) |
Department of Tourism Secretary Bernadette
Romulo-Puyat said the rehabilitation of El Nido starts with the shutdown of 22
tourism-oriented establishments found in direct violations of existing environmental
laws, most especially those structures built too close to the sea.
The difference in approach with respect to El
Nido is that there will be no total shutdown of El Nido
The DOT Sec. told mediamen in Quezon city that
even if total closure is not implemented, government is looking at the
possibility of imposing limits on the number of tourists that can visit the
town.
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(PCCI) urged the Duterte government to study carefully the proposal to close
tourist spots in the towns of Coron and El
Nido in Palawan for rehabilitation.
“The local government in El Nido, Palawan said
they closed 22 establishments,” Puyat said.
Local officials of El Nido sat down and had a
meeting with Sec. Puyat, Department of Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu and
Secretary Eduardo Año of the Department of the Interior and Local Government(DILG)
at the DILG office.
The DOT Secretary said the Palawan Interagency
Task Force (PITF) composed of DOT, DENR and DILG is set to conduct
rehabilitation efforts for El Nido to prevent the looming pollution problem
from getting out of hand.
Consultation with stakeholders and the local
government of El Nido have already started by the PITF to chart the course of action in
rehabilitating the resort town.
Discussion points or agreed upon in the series
of meetings with the local government, environmental organizations and others
will be the basis of the recommendation that the Palawan Task Force(PITF) will
submit to President Rodrigo Duterte, DILG Sec Año said.
Total shutdown may not be necessary in
rehabilitating El Nido, considering unlike Boracay the number crowds is not as
big like for Boracay then before the 6 month closure.
“With the help of the local government units,
we can also come up with a security task force to guard El Nido. It has 45
islands and we must secure all of those if we want to preserve El Nido as a top
tourist destination,” the DILG Sec. added.
The DENR secretary has instructed additional presence of DENR personnel in El Nido and Coron to ensure full compliance of existing environmental laws by businessmen.
“We have to be very strict in El Nido and
Coron. We will dedicate a big portion of the DENR presence there to focus on
environmental compliance,” Cimatu said.
“We are still finalizing the timeline for the
rehabilitation program, but there will be three aspects. The environmetal
compliance aspect, the DILG aspect which involves the issue of business permits
and building constructions, and the tourism side,” the DENR Sec added.
.
About 1 million tourists visit Palawan every year, with the bulk going to the world known town resorts of El Nido and Coron.
About 1 million tourists visit Palawan every year, with the bulk going to the world known town resorts of El Nido and Coron.
El Nido in particular
reached 200,000 tourist arrivals last year.
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