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EL NIDO, Palawan – US Secretary of the Environment Roy Cimatu on Wednesday suggested creating a 20-meter non-construction zone here, with cabinet secretaries assessing the city's compliance with environmental policies.
The current servitude zone of 3 meters from the shore at El Nido should be adjusted "to allow tourists to enjoy the sand and the view with enough space," Cimatu told reporters.
"Nung hindi pa ito tourist destination, apply nila ang [easement under the] water code that is 3 meters, so "pag bukas nito as a tourist destination, nandun na sila," he said.
(When El Nido was not yet a tourist destination, the easement they were applying was based on the water code that is 3 meters away, so when it opened as a destination already existing structures.)
The Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) may have made a mistake in issuing titles at the time, he said.
"I'm really sorry to say that in the 1980s, Kasi hindi pa inakala was not a popular tourist destination," he said.
(I'm really sorry to say that because in the 1980s they did not expect the city to become a tourist destination.)
The local government had previously dismantled several settlements that violated the city's 3-meter easement policy.
Earlier, he said that it would limit the number of visitors to the seaside resort, known for its beaches and lagoons, to avoid overcrowding and garbage in tourist spots.
Local government data showed that this 923-square-kilometer resort had 200,000 tourists in 2017 alone.
The government has not yet determined the carrying capacity of El Nido, but funds for the study are already pending, said Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat.
The government will not close the entire tourist destination, but only the rehabilitation of parts of El Nido, she said.
The cleaning of El Nido comes one month after the reopening of Boracay to tourists after a six-month rehabilitation period.
The island of Western Visayas was closed to tourists in April, after President Rodrigo Duterte declared that the waters of the island had been turned into "catch basins" because of problems with the water. ; sewers.
– with a report from April Rafales, ABS-CBN News
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