By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The mayor of Negros Occidental’s Binalbagan town expressed his utter disappointment and warned visitors of the trash left behind at Sitio Hermit Mountain in the town’s Barangay Bi-ao.

“We gave a fair warning to everyone: If this [doesn’t] stop, you leave us with no choice!” Binalbagan Mayor Alejandro Mirasol said in a post on his Facebook page.

Mirasol said they have lost control due to the number of tourists visiting the site, especially during weekends.

The area is now seeing a total of 3,000 to 5,000 tourists, with most of the visitors even coming from other neighboring provinces.

Recently, the mountain has become a popular tourist destination for hikers and bikers due to the breathtaking views in the area.

Mirasol made an appeal to the tourists visiting the site to be responsible and not to leave their trash, as it is very difficult to clean up due to the number of cliffs surrounding the area.

“It is good news that Hermit, in Barangay Biao, is rapidly becoming a tourist destination here in the municipality. But in other scenarios, one of the major problems is the proper garbage disposal,” the mayor said in his Facebook post on January 8.

“If visitors continue to trash the place, we will force to exclude non-Binalbaganons [from] Hermit,” it said in a separate post.

Information has also reached the town mayor that several individuals have even taken advantage of tourists by collecting fees from them.

He clarified that they have not given authorization for any individual to collect fees, adding that the municipal government had not yet finalized its rules and regulations./DGB, WDJ