EDITORIAL - Other tourist sites have working systems

As an offshoot of the impending closure of Boracay for six months to give it time to heal and be rehabilitated, several other popular tourist destinations have taken it upon themselves to start their own healing and rehabilitation by embarking on massive clean-up drives. One such popular tourist destination is the island of Sumilon in the municipality of Oslob.

According to reports, a total of two tons of trash had been recovered on just the first day of the clean-up. This clearly underscores both the urgency and the timeliness of the effort, which is to say that had the initiative not been undertaken at the time it was, then it would have been extremely possible that Sumilon would have, over time, gone the way of Boracay.

But these massive efforts at healing and rehabilitation bring to mind the underlying responsibilities of the concerned authorities and whether or not these responsibilities have been exercised or not. In the case of Boracay, these responsibilities have clearly not been exercised. Worse, they could not have been exercised for worse reasons than just plain laziness or neglect. It is distinctly possible that corruption lay at the core of this whole mess.

On the other hand, this whole controversy over the fate of the country’s prime tourist attractions also brings to the fore the good practices being employed in other destinations. Along this line, it might be worthwhile to specifically mention the case of Kalanggaman Island in the municipality of Palompon in the nearby province of Leyte.

At least as far as trash management is concerned, the local authorities in Palompon have made it a point not to let trash be a problem in Kalanggaman. Prior to embarkation for Kalanggaman, tourists and visitors are given a briefing on cleanliness and safety. More strikingly, and this is important, the tourists and visitors are given free trash bags for them to put in their trash and bring back to Palompon where it is the local government that takes care of their disposal.

Now, Kalanggaman is not on the same level as Boracay or Sumilon even if its beach and sandbar can also give the latter two destinations a good run for their money. But the point is, if there is a system in play as far as trash is concerned for tourists and visitors going to Kalanggaman, why could not the bigger players also have their own perhaps more elaborate systems worthy of their own sophistication. Systems are not hard to implement. All it takes is political will.