PTA to present own Boracay development plan

The Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) will soon present its own comprehensive development plan for Boracay which it hopes will help elevate the island to the ranks of other world-class destinations.

In a statement, PTA general manager Robert Dean Barbers said that to maintain Boracay’s stature as the best beach in the world, they have included in the plan the neighboring Aklan islands and municipalities of Nabas, Buruanga and Caticlan.

The PTA’s comprehensive development plan for Boracay is separate from the master plans of the Department of Tourism and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“It would be rather foolish to look at and plan only for Boracay when we all know its (adjoining areas) will always be affected by whatever development we bring into Boracay Island,” Barbers said.

“We have been looking at Boracay in every aspect and detail to find out which areas need further development, what kind of development and of course, which developments cannot anymore be sustained and where are these located,” he added.

Barbers said they have commissioned Palafox Associates, a known architectural, planning and design firm which ranks 94th in the World Architecture’s Top 200, to craft the comprehensive plan for Boracay.

President Arroyo has issued Executive Order 214 mandating the PTA, an attached agency of the Department of Tourism, to exercise administration and control over Boracay Island.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza earlier announced the completion of the agency’s final draft of a new environmental master plan for Boracay, which seeks to ensure that any construction on the premier resort island would consider environmental protection.

Atienza said the environmental master plan would be implemented after the six-month moratorium on all construction projects in Boracay, which the municipal government of Malay, Aklan, which has jurisdiction over the resort island, enforced last Jan. 2.

Barbers said they have been convincing the municipal government to stop the issuance of building and other construction permits on the island to avert flooding.

Barbers, meanwhile, reiterated the need to enforce the use of grease traps and the demolition of illegal structures on the beachfront and other structures blocking the natural underground water drains, among other precautionary measures.

“The sooner all these are put into place, the sooner we can move toward the implementation of more positively progressive developmental programs pursuant to the Boracay Master Development Plan with which the proposed environmental master plan runs alongside,” he said.