Spooking investors

Will we ever get our act together? We can’t enforce laws, we can’t clean up our air, we can’t open one airport terminal or finish a skyway or shift to automated voting. And we can’t develop tourist destinations properly.

Boracay, one of the few success stories in tourism, is turning into a major disaster. One day the entire island will be locked in litigation and its powdery white sand will simply be shipped off to Singapore, Las Vegas or some landlocked rich country that wants to build a faux tropical beach.

The interest of this scandal-plagued administration in one of the country’s few world-renowned tourist destinations is curious, considering that there are many other spots in the archipelago that can use that kind of official attention.

For example, the rice terraces of Banawe, once referred to by Filipinos as the eighth wonder of the world, are lying fallow and being eroded by giant earthworms. Southeast Asia has many such terraced rice paddies, but those in Banawe are the most extensive and have drawn tourists for decades. Now the rice terraces are deteriorating from sheer neglect. The government cannot even improve the narrow, dangerous road leading to Banawe.

When will the government step in to preserve this national treasure, and assist residents in marketing their high-grade, fragrant mountain rice, their woodcarvings and hand-woven fabrics?

Only if private individuals, foreigners included, step in and do the hard work of developing and selling the rice terraces to the world. But then the sweet smell of success will attract the greedy and the government will finally come in, ostensibly to bring order to unfettered economic boom.

The way events are unfolding in Boracay, no one will risk hard-earned money in tourism development anywhere in this country.

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Other popular or emerging tourist destinations should learn their lessons from the fiasco in Boracay.

With more whale sharks or butanding being lured, perhaps by global warming, to new habitats in the Philippines, lucky residents of the coastal communities picked by the creatures for R&R should move quickly to protect their marine ecosystem and regulate tourism development.

Barring another environmental disaster like the one in Guimaras, those whale sharks as well as dolphins and sea turtles will further boost tourism in the boomtown of Cebu, where they have been spotted recently, and now in the resort area of La Union. The creatures have already spurred development in Bohol and Sorsogon, where residents have learned to protect the whale sharks’ habitat.

That development should include strict zoning regulations to enhance rather than obstruct the natural landscape. This has not been done in Boracay, where development has been going on for years in typical Pinoy fashion: unplanned, unregulated, as exuberant as Philippine democracy.

Now the government is stepping in to curb the exuberance and bring some order to land ownership on the resort island. This isn’t altogether bad. Anyone who wants to own land in this country needs a legitimate title to it. Foreigners are barred by the Constitution from owning land.

But with the 2007 campaign period so close, and given the scandals that have hounded the administration, the inevitable suspicion is that certain greedy characters are simply hoping to make a fast buck by selling off thriving properties in Boracay. And the suspicion is that this isn’t going to be the last of such government fund-raising activities.

Coming on the heels of the woes of Germany’s Fraport AG over its multimillion-dollar investment in the NAIA Terminal 3, continuing uncertainties in mining and the many other disincentives to business in this country, the mess in Boracay can only spook investors, whether major players or small entrepreneurs.

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If the administration is serious about streamlining land titling, it should look into public lands that have ended up as private property of influential individuals. Some well-connected folks have managed to buy entire islands. Were these leased or sold? Is this legal? How many more of our 7,100 islands are up for sale?

And while the mess in Boracay is being untangled, tourism officials should listen to those who are trying to sell the country as a global destination. Travel agents and airline officials have long complained about the high cost of accommodations in the Philippines compared to those in neighboring countries with similar attractions such as Thailand.

As in many other parts of the world, Thai accommodations are ranked by stars. Hotel rates for each star category have a narrow range, facilitating bookings from overseas. Not so in the Philippines, where travel agents complain that there are no standard hotel rates based on star categories, and where a four-star hotel can charge five-star rates.

Right now rates are the least of the worries of Boracay resort owners, some of whom have been in business on the island for 30 years. The government should give credit to that kind of commitment to investing in what used to be a backwater in Aklan. Instead those investors have just been declared squatters on public land.

It will be tragic if the trouble in Boracay discourages private investors from putting money into tourism development in this country, especially in emerging destinations such as Sorsogon and Bohol.

The government has been incapable of providing the infrastructure needed to boost tourism. Private investment is needed to build roads, piers, airports, modern telecommunications facilities and decent accommodations.

The government cannot even build decent public toilet facilities in tourist destinations. Just take a look at the filthy public toilet at the entrance to the Underground River, one of the top destinations in Palawan. We should stop thinking that everyone can simply pee against a wall or behind a bush. Do this near the Underground River and you risk being bitten by one of the giant monitor lizards roaming wild in the area.

Private participation is needed to protect the environment. Despite the dirty toilet near the Underground River, Palawan has had some success in getting locals to participate in environmental protection and sustainable exploitation of natural resources.

Preserving the environment includes preventing illegal fishing and coral gathering, and protecting those gentle whale sharks and dolphins so they will keep coming back. The government does not have the resources for this; it needs help from the private sector.

In its belated effort to bring order to business in Boracay, the government should avoid spooking those who have the resources and the interest to invest in the sustainable development of the country’s tourism industry.