By Tara Yap
Following the presence of green algae along a Boracay beach, a change.org petition entitled “A Call to Action to Save One of the World’s Best Islands from Verge of Extinction” is urging President Rodrigo Duterte to take action.
“The influx of tourists coming to the island drives more foreign developers that are potential risks to the sustainability of Boracay’s environment, ecosystems and natural resources,” said Jay Garmino, who created the petition. “This unsustainable tourism development contributes to coastal and ecological degradation, social and cultural dislocation, rapid growth of island population, rampant solid waste disposal, and increasing numbers of illegal connection of sewerage disposal where some of this were thrown out at the shoreline of Bulabog beach.”
He claimed the local government already issued 296 new building permits in a span of three months last year.
Garmino wants Duterte to end the issuance of building permits in Boracay and to limit the number of people visiting the popular resort island./WDJ