DENR to deploy 35 env’t enforcers in Boracay

Shown here is one of Boracay’s beaches two weeks before the Oct. 26 island reopening. Boracay was ordered shut for six months after President Rodrigo Duterte called the holiday island a “cesspool.”

BORACAY – Some 35 environmental enforcers will be mobilized here next week – days before the scheduled island reopening on Oct. 26.

Environment secretary Roy Cimatu said the environmental enforcers – most of them Boracay residents – are tasked to ensure island’s environmental sustainability.

“Part of their duty is to conduct inspection of the sewage treatment plants (STPs) of the 21 hotels initially accredited by the inter-agency task force,” Cimatu said.

The inspection will be done every three days “so that we could determine if their STPs are effective or not,” the DENR chief added.

The deployment of the environmental enforcers is part of the 11-day dry run for Boracay’s reopening beginning Oct. 15.

Tourists from Aklan will be allowed entry in Boracay on Oct. 15 while those from other neighboring provinces, on Oct. 16.

Foreign tourists and those from other parts of the country will be allowed to enter Boracay on Oct. 26.

Should the deployment of environmental enforcers in Boracay prove itself effective, the same measure will be observed in other tourist destinations in the country, according to the DENR.

SOURCE: Panay News

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