We join the government in raising a forbidding fist against those who have no manners in poking fun at the “anti-littering” ordinance on the restored Boracay's erstwhile spotless white beach.
The malicious abasement of its water quality, caused by sewage from uncontrolled development, had in years taken a ravaging toll on the health of Boracay's coral reefs, fisheries, residents, and tourists.
Sans doubt, the government was aware of this, with President Rodrigo Duterte last year calling Boracay, one of the country's top tourist destinations, a cesspool.
The powder white sand beaches encouraged an influx of local and foreign tourists as well as people from other islands of this Southeast Asian archipelago who were desperate for income, the illusion high income wads were being churned out there.
Eventually, six months of government rehabilitation efforts appeared to have paid off, with Boracay's beach spotless yet again, the erstwhile powdery sands now unaccustomed to the toxic green algae that used to blight the coastline.
When it was reopened in October last year, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources vowed to intensify the enforcement of environmental laws in Boracay, with a promise to set up permanent offices there, as in other top tourist destinations, to strictly implement environmental laws.
But what contemptuous behavior that had maligned the Filipinos—Exhibit A, a video which circulated online showing a tourist letting her child defecate on the beach while another was caught burying a diaper on the island's white sand, the two still unidentified but their actions graphic.
Beyond doubt, their disdainful behavior is appropriately “offensive to sight” which insults the government and the Filipinos who take pride in this tourist jewel.
It is high time the government went beyond the eloquence of expressed alarm and disquietude. Holding Exhibit A as piece of evidence, it should take an added step and punish those thick-skinned bipeds who are guilty of making government's rehabilitation efforts a laughingstock.