In my column in the MR 18-1 (Jan-Feb 2018) issue of this magazine, I wrote about the need to look at coastal towns with tourism potential and figure out how to turn around development deficiencies (e.g., correcting zoning, construction and, environmental violations). I wrote in particular about Coron for four reasons: (1) I’ve been familiar with most coastal communities, including Northern Palawan, that have now evolved as tourist destinations; (2) Waterfront development and coastal tourism has been one of my passions the past 25 years and indeed included as one of the major interests of the Maritime Forum; (3) I revisited the Coron-Busuanga area after 5 years with my family during the Christmas holidays, and (4) Coron is one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the country today.

The title of this column this issue is in quotes because I borrowed it from the title of the excellent forum on Philippine Coastal Tourism, Marine Pollution and the Law conducted by the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea (IMLOS) headed by its Director, Maritime Law expert Prof Jay L Batongbacal PhD at the Bocobo Hall, UP Law Center, Diliman, Quezon City that I was privileged to attend on 10-April-2018.

The forum was centered on the extremely controversial government drift towards a 6-month closure of the world-famous island destination, Boracay. I say “drift” because while it seems that while closure is certain, the final stamp of approval for that tragic event had not been made as yet. However, there is one indication that it would happen. After I listened to a news flash on 11-April-2018 that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is calling for a Senate investigation on the claim that Boracay is bring closed in order to expedite the construction of a giant casino, an immediate newsflash was incidentally made a minute later in the same channel that President Rodrigo Duterte had cancelled the casino’s Boracay project. In the course of the Forum, that question was actually asked by one participant, and was answered clearly by DENR Undersecretary Maria Paz Luna: “while the PAGCOR has given its nod for the casino’s establishment, the authority for its actual construction would be the DENR, and that would be unlikely.”

After all is said and done on its closure, if that happens, I can point out my own thinking that a win-win solution would be to put the casino nearby on the Panay mainland, where Ayala Land, SMDC, San Miguel Properties, Robinsons Land and other developers are trying to outdo each other, thereby increasing property values to the delight of the Malay LGU. I just hope they don’t screw up the master plans of these developers as they did in Boracay, as I stated during the UP IMLOS Forum, “The private sector does master planning and implementation much better than the government (particularly LGUs).”

USEC Luna was not the only excellent speaker. Prof Batongbacal’s able assistant, Atty Jackie Espenilla had picked three other prominent experts for the topics in the forum. Aside from USEC Luna (a legal environmental law expert) who talked on “Understanding R.A. 9275 (the Clean Water Act),” the others were:

• Renown marine environmental expert Dr Miguel D Fortes, retired Professor at the UP Marine Science Institute and currently UNESCO Consultant (and a visiting NDCP Professor during my watch from 2001-2010), who spoke on “Philippine Coastal Tourism: Cutting the Hands that Feed.”
• Engineer Eligio Ildefonso, Executive Director, National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), who discussed “Tourism and Trash: R.A. 9003 (the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2009) in Context;” and
• Attorney Gloria Ramos, Vice President of Oceana Philippines, who discussed “The Plastic Peril on our Oceans”. Atty Ramos actually briefed the Maritime Forum last 23-March-2018 at the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP) on its activities with particular interest on the Philippine EEZ, including the WPS and the Benham Rise.

Dr Fortes gave a very good overview of environmental issues and our inability to cope with the demand for a good regulatory framework. His long experience in the academe and as practitioner looking in as a UNECO Consultant had given him deep appreciation of the situation on the ground and a keen knowledge of what ails the regulatory framework.

Engr Ildefonso showed deep knowledge and insight on solid waste management. He is an expert in the law, and knows the appropriate processes regarding solid waste management. He is right in the middle of it all as Executive Director of the National Solid Waste Management Commission that approves and oversees solid waste management systems and LGU performance related to the task. Unfortunately the overall impression with respect to this function is that no LGU unit can be regarded as compliant with the law, which we agree with.

Atty Ramos outlined the causes and effects of using plastic, which eventually end up in garbage and subsequently disposed off in the oceans. She showed locations of plastic floating in various areas in the world’s oceans.

I mentioned an incident in 2013 when I was with a group visiting Lubang Island to discuss an alternative power project being developed locally. We used a PPA patrol boat that encountered a “garbage island consisting mainly of plastic bags that fouled up our boat’s waterjet engine. That slowed us down until the boat was stopped and the engine serviced by my son, who operates a boatyard in Bacoor, Cavite to remove all the debris. These plastic bags all came from Manila Bay, coming out from the Cavite coastal towns full of squatters that find the bay a convenient way to dispose of trash. I likewise mentioned this during the 127th Maritime Forum held at the Environmental Management Bureau at the DENR Compound on 27-Oct-2017.

During that time, I showed a very alarming clip on the “plastic menace” (See this and other videos: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZq6vA5tQms&index=49&list=PLG8IrydigQfdN71-08mBcdLrHdpSEuubx&t=0s)

Atty Luna showed her wide knowledge of the issue of water resources and how we score regarding implementing RA 9275, not only in Boracay, that actually has a better sewage system than Manila, which used to be the envy in East Asia at the turn of the 20th Century, when we were ahead of all other countries in development, with the exception of Japan. Since independence in 1946, we have not gotten our democratic act together. Does this show we are beyond independent governance?

I sensed a consensus among the speakers and the audience concerning Boracay, and that it is a gem of a tourist destination. This consensus does not seem to coincide with an announcement made by President Rodrigo Duterte that it should be declared for land reform, a reality that he personally reaffirmed in an arrival statement on 13-April-2018 after his China trip. This contradicts the DOT and LGU Tourism Master Plans and will set us back many years. I hope that we can somehow find a way to have this decision changed.

I particularly like Atty Ramos’s parting reminder on our environmental predicament as well as many issue that she correctly attributes to “the root of the root of the evils in Philippine governance:

• Knowledge without character
• Science without humanity
• Worship without sacrifice
• Commerce without morality
• Wealth without work
• Pleasure without conscience
• Politics without principles

And “the root of the root of the root” – the seven deadly sins: Pride, Greed, Lust, Wrath, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth. That, in essence is actually why we seem to be seen, as a nation, as among the top in impunity!

I also mentioned that, having seen a Tokyo Bay reclamation in 1994 that was primarily an island landfill, I requested the Japanese Embassy to invite a lecturer from Japan to make a presentation on that “garbage island” when we organized a Maritime Forum, “Waterfront Development 2000” at the Philippine International Convention Center in June, 2000. I mentioned that a Canadian colleague who is involved in developing projects for planting trees here in association with a friend in the Bamboo Coalition told me when he visited last year that he now lives on that “garbage island” and finds it “a great place to be at.” The Japanese made a good presentation, which apparently did not get across to many, except our group.

Asked what he thinks of the idea, Engr Ildefonso stated that he is aware of it, and that many proposals have been advanced here but said in no uncertain terms: “it will never pass me.”

I added that perhaps such is the final solution to our predicament in Metro Manila, using many garbage barges from coastal towns and along the Pasig River to deliver them to a processing area that will have to be initially reclaimed and developed, then filled up in the landfills to be prepared and established, duly enclosed within retaining walls and lined with plastic in accordance with landfill procedures. Ildefonso replied that the Filipino reacts differently in comparison with the Japanese. His mind was closed.

Getting no support from any of the speakers, and lacking time, I left it at that. I cannot imagine why they compare the idea to that of simple dumping trash into the sea, which is actually what is happening now. As a former CPCG and PPA General Manager for a total of 9 years at the South Harbor, I agonized over the hundreds of tons of garbage carried by the southwest monsoon from the Cavite coast to the South Inner Harbor during the typhoon season that was the source of great embarrassment for us, and likewise the trash that blocks Roxas Boulevard during such heavy weather. Should these continue?

Perhaps it is worth mentioning that the idea is REALLY valid and maybe we can prove that the Filipino can do it. The Singaporeans did.

I conclude with this quote from a London article from CNN.COM, “The Island Paradise Built on a garbage dump:”

“Great effort went into making sure that the impact of the landfill on Pulau Semakau’s biodiversity was minimized. In fact, biodiversity remains high and we have not lost a single species because of the landfill,” says Wang Luan Keng, an education and research officer at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) in Singapore. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/07/26/ji.semakaulandfill/

In fact many small areas in New York since the 1800s were reclaimed using partly trash, including Ellis Island and the parks of Staten Island: https://gizmodo.com/5-parts-of-nyc-built-on-garbage-and-waste-1682267605

As our venerable Chairman Emeritus former President FIDEL V RAMOS often says: “Kaya natin ‘to”.