ENVIRONMENT Secretary Roy Cimatu on Tuesday said a plan to put up a resort casino in Boracay Island in Aklan ran counter to the government’s effort to free up some space in the island.
Cimatu reacted to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s approval of a provisional license allowing the construction and operation of two casinos in the island.
Pagcor chairperson and chief executive officer Andrea Domingo gave the Galaxy Entertainment Group the green light to build a resort casino in a 'Boracay 23-hectare property in the island’s Barangay Manok-Manok, and billionaire Andrew Tan to open another casino in his 559-room Savoy Hotel.
Cimatu said the two business operators must still seek the approval of the Department of Environment and Natural Resource’s Environmental Management Bureau before they could push through with the construction of their structures on the island.
The construction of a new structure by the Galaxy Entertainment Group was against the government’s effort to clear and rehabilitate the Boracay Island, he said.
When asked, he said “there is [contradiction]. It appears that way.”
“We will be depending on the carrying capacity [of Boracay],” he said, referring to the department’s decision whether to issue an environmental compliance certificate or not.
“[Some] 10 years ago, the carrying capacity was… How much more now?” he asked.
The carrying capacity of how many people could fit in the island would be [major] factor in the environmental impact assessment of EMB before the bureau could grant an ECC to the Galaxy
Entertainment Group, he said.
“The [ECC] issuance be based on science space and carrying capacity,” he added.
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the rehabilitation of Boracay Island
due to violation of various environmental laws and regulations.
The Department of Tourism, Department of the Interior and Local Government and DENR recommended to the President the closure of the island for at least six months starting April 26.
Meanwhile, Cimatu said there was a need to “invest in nature” amid the Boracay Island crisis.
“Let us spend to grow more trees to make our forests lusher, and our watersheds more productive. Let us exert more effort to clean up our rivers, lakes, beaches and seas, and to safeguard our aquifers, and to keep them clean,” he said in a statement.