(Eagle News) – The Department of Tourism is eyeing Siargao and Coron as its next target for government clean-up and rehabilitation efforts.
This was according to Tourism chief Bernadette Romulo-Puyat who bared on Monday future rehabilitation efforts for these two popular tourism sites.
Romulo-Puyat also said that there are ongoing clean-up and rehabilitation efforts in two other popular tourist spots – Panglao in Bohol, and El Nido in Palawan.
“We are rehabilitating Panglao, Bohol and El Nido, and soon in Siargao. We’re actually looking at Coron,” she said in a briefing on the side of the refreshed tourism campaign relaunch in Manila.
“We went to Panglao last November and we actually gave them six months to follow the easement law and to follow environmental laws. In six months and they still do not comply then that’s what we’re going to discuss, what the next steps are,” she said.
The DOT chief said that in the rehabilitation efforts in Panglao and El Nido, there was no need to close these spots, unlike what had been done in Boracay which had earlier been described as a “cesspool” by President Rodrigo Duterte before its rehabilitation.
She, however, warned the mayors of Panglao and El Nido to start complying with environmental laws.
“We hope that the mayors of Panglao and El Nido start complying. Why wait for the six months to end?” she added.
The Philippine government is already in its second phase of rehabilitation efforts in Boracay island. This involves repairing roads leading to the island’s timberland.
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said that they have already received some feedback regarding violations in Boracay, and they will tackle this in their next inter-agency task force meeting on February 28.
“We received feedbacks from constituents that there are certain areas wherein they noted some sort of violations. We will look into that and we will make sure that we sustain the gains that we had for the last nine months,” Año said.
