Fact or Fake: Should you still go to Boracay?

There is no doubt Boracay deserved the recognition as one of the best beaches in the world. With picturesque skyline, turquiose blue water and an endless stream of activities from sun up to sundown, Boracay is a top Philippine tourist destination drawing in some P56 billion in tourism revenues.

But President Duterte in a recent public speech said he will close Boracay, calling it a “cesspool,” a stinging criticism but one Boracay had coming, according to locals.

He had given the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) six months to clean Boracay.

Summer is around the corner, but should you still consider Boracay in your summer plans?

At the onset, the answer is a qualified yes.

Well, that depends on a lot of factors, foremost are location and water quality.

Water quality

First off, here’s a fact: Boracay is not closed. At least not yet as of this posting.

But what faces closure at the moment are establishments that violate the Philippine Clean Water Act due to illegal connections to the island's drainage system.

As of this writing, the DENR said there are already 12 establishments that had been recommended for closure. This is from a list of 51 establishments which had been earlier issued notices of violations.

Another fact: contrary to common perception, Boracay Island does have a sewerage system. It is run by the Boracay Island Water Co. Inc. and covers 61 percent of the island, according to Boracay Water General Manager and COO Joseph Michael Santos.

Boracay Island Water is one of two water service providers and the other is Boracay Tubi, according to DENR Undersecretary Maria Paz Luna. Boracay Tubi has a septage treatment plant instead of a sewerage system.

“Frankly, Boracay is ahead of the curve in sewage and septage coverage in the whole country. In a few years, full coverage na,” Luna said.

So why is there a problem?

It can be traced to the number of establishments which are not connected to either the septage and sewerage systems.

Luna said data from the local government show there are 4,500 business establishments in the island, including sari-sari stores, which may not have discharge to high-end resorts. Of the business with waste water discharge, only 800 are connected to Boracay Island Water and between 150 and 200 establishments are connected to Boracay Tubi.

So where do the other non-connected establishments throw their wastewater? To the drainage system which is designed only for storm water discharge.

A video from Ken Nacor, a Boracay veteran and owner of a kite-surfing school in Bolabog Beach in Boracay, shows the gravity of the problem.

In a video he took in 2017, a large drainage pipe could be seen discharging dark colored water straight to the sea, very near the seashore. Recent pictures taken last December show the same problem.

Nacor will be the first to tell you, Duterte was justified in calling the island a cesspool.

“Iyong white beach, seven kilometers, wow, maganda pero wala silang alam ‘yung mga basura ng mga canal, taeng tinatapon nila dito sa Bolabog,” he said.

Better that the government close the island so it can heal, Nacor said.

Martin Leppers, who teaches kite-surfing, had a tiny scratch but since he is mostly in the water, that scratch had become an infected wound. He blames the water for the infection.

“It’s getting big, big, and big. It’s due to infection. They said to me go to the doctor,” he said.

Location

There’s Bolabog Beach and then there’s White Beach which are only two of the several beaches in the whole island.

In Bolabog Beach, that’s where the drainage pipes are. These include the sewerage pipes of Boracay Island Water which disposes already treated water, which are already swimming pool-grade, far into the ocean.

The White Beach is probably the face of Boracay with its talcum powder sand, still pristine water, gorgeous sunsets and a host of restaurants and bars that offer all-night partying.

The question is: are the waters safe?

“Boracay water is still safe,” Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores declared at the start of a meeting with stakeholders after the President’s declaration. He went as far as to surmise that Duterte may have been misinformed.

In a recent study by the DENR's Environment Management Bureau of fecal coliform concentration, Bolabog Beach had the highest, most probable number of coliform per 100 mL at 58 mpn. The MPN levels along the White Beach are much lower. The standard is 200 MPN/100 mL.

Fecal coliform has also gone down from 124.9 MPN/100 ml in 2014 to only 10.9 MPN/100 ml in 2017.

But before you start feeling icky at the thought of swimming in water where fecal coliform is present, consider this: 100 MPN/10 mL is considered class SB standards. What is this? That is the fecal coliform concentration in swimming pool waters.

How about the algae bloom?

What probably turns off most people about Boracay are pictures or videos of algae bloom, which is common during the warmer months of March to May.

You may think the culprit is the coliform?

The fact?

The DENR said the algae bloom is caused by the presence of phosphate, a chemical mostly found in detergents.

Luna said phosphate fertilizes the algae eggs and they are looking into limiting the output of phosphate into the our seawaters by asking detergent makers to limit phosphate in their products.

Still the best, but until when?

White Beach still never fails to amaze whether at the break of dawn when water has receded to reveal kilometers of long and wide of powdery sand, where you can jog or take a stroll amidst a backdrop of serene water and pink skies.

In the evening, it is a dramatic theater of colors. The sky turns in a shy shade of blue reflected in the waters that coyly crash into the shoreline. The sun descends in a horizon of vivid palette of colors of yellow, orange, crimson and violet.

“It’s like in the pictures,” said an Israeli couple we talked to describe Boracay. They’ve been in the Philippines for the past two weeks and have been in Palawan.

We asked what they thought of the President’s comment that Boracay had become a cesspool.

“Oh no. It’s one of the most beautiful places. This water? With the good light of the sun, amazing!” he said.

In 2017, I went to a summer trip to Maldives but I dare say I was not impressed.

“We’ve seen this before,” I told my friends who readily agreed after seeing its coastline and its beaches.

Haven’t we all? Whether it's in Bohol, in El Nido or Coron in Palawan or even the lesser known Anguib Beach in Cagayan Province.

We have been blessed with beautiful nature, the challenge is how do we take care of these blessings?

Watch more on “Face or Fake with Joseph Morong" every Monday on GMA Online Exclusives