MANILA, Philippines - Not another PR event in Boracay, I thought. Yes, I am that jaded — what was once a cherished destination full of memories of dancing on the beach until sunrise, of drumbeats and fire and the sultry freedom of being barefoot and barely clothed —that was what Boracay was to me. It used to be spontaneous. Now it’s all contrived. Everyone has been lamenting the commercialization and degradation of the island for many years now, but it still continues to be a terribly popular destination, especially during the months of April and May when corporate-sponsored events, parties and shows come in full force and the island starts resembling the Mall of Asia.
But this particular trip, called the Summer Soul event and hosted by the Lifestyle Network and Metro Society magazine, included a “Give Back The Love”-themed dinner in honor of the I Can Serve Foundation, and a beach clean-up the following morning. The beach clean-up is a timely and nice touch, considering the growing awareness and concern among people about the environmental condition, but picking up cigarette butts and bottle caps along the shore hardly makes an impact on the real pollution problems of Boracay.
Nevertheless, the I Can Serve women had a blast helping clean up. To their credit, they already give a lot of their time and talents to the cause of fighting breast cancer. The women who participated were chefs Tippi Tambunting, Maj Lazatin and Inez Vargas-Javellana and pastry chefs Mara De La Rama-Poblete and Roselyn Tiangco, who all have taken part in the Pink Kitchen events. The other women in the group have a more personal involvement, having been affected by breast cancer themselves or through a loved one. Ina Romero-Vergel De Dios, who is part of the fundraising committee, was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 27. The mother of Via Romualdez-Reyes, Pink Kitchen’s project manager, had breast cancer. Ria Romero, who focuses on helping the foundation get sponsors, is Ina’s sister. Vangie Khu and Tina Gutierrez are both breast cancer survivors themselves and are part of the I Can Serve shop.
All of them are such inspirations, and the welcome dinner at Discovery Shores was appropriately dressed in pink, with excellent food prepared by chef Sau Del Rosario. Those who still had energy moved on to the Myx party further down at Sangria Bar. I must be getting old and cantankerous because I was in home in bed by 10, unable to take the sound clash produced by the adjacent bars playing different but equally deafening tunes. Hip hop vs House vs Madonna vs Bob Marley — add noise pollution to the island’s list of ailments.
Clean-up day came bright and early. Joined by local kids and other do-gooders, we roved from Station 1 to Station 3 covered in Neutrogena sun-protection and armed with Glad trash bags, poking at assorted litter with a neon green trash pick. (At a beach clean-up I joined in Los Angeles 10 years ago, I found way grosser stuff there. We must be doing something right.) I made a detour to see the much-talked-about Starbucks that just opened. With a Shakey’s and Yellow Cab already in place and rumors of McDonalds coming, the fast-foodization of Boracay is nearly complete. Sigh... I remember when we’d have to wait hours for our tandoori at True Foods....but we were all on the same island time, and as long as you had a cold beer and good conversation, what’s a few hours’ wait for some true food?
The most visibly glaring problem is the carpet of green algae covering the once-clear water and once-white sand. It also starts to reek after a while, ruining a perfectly romantic sunset ramble with the scent of rotting bacteria wafting in with the lovely aromas of sea salt and isaw on the grill. Local folklore says that seasonal algae is normal. But this was just too much; in all my Boracay-going years the shore had never looked as sickly. “The seasonal blooms are due to the uncontrolled explosion of population growth in the interior of the island, whose sewage is not connected to the sewage system,” reports Thomas J. Goreau, PhD and president of Global Coral Reef Alliance in a 2007 paper titled “Boracay Environmental Restoration, Water Quality, and Sustainable Energy.” More pollution equals more algae, put simply.
Dr. Goreau also debunks the myth of the lumot balls. Local residents have been compacting the rampant algae and leaving them out to dry, claiming that they turn into white sand. But he writes that this is false, and that it’s a completely different species of algae that make small limestone grains that become beach sand when they die, not the soft weedy stuff that trails around like tufts of neon pubes. “These algae live further from the shore, but these ‘good’ algae, which build the beach, are intolerant of high nutrients because they are overgrown and killed by the ‘bad’ algae, whenever the worthless weed algae species are over-fertilized by sewage.”
So there you have it — Boracay is one big stinking sewer. But it’s not too late, the island can still be restored to its former glory with a sustainable plan to slow down development and upgrade its internal systems and infrastructure. Tossing your beach trash in the right place is just the beginning. Let’s all try to save Boracay, the island we’ve loved to death.