Drilon bats for creation of Boracay development authority

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Senator Franklin Drilon on Wednesday urged fellow lawmakers to tackle the proposed creation of a centralized agency that will watch over Boracay island, which he said has been plagued by a "failure of management."

The current set-up, where the the local government and concerned national agencies watch over Boracay, had led to "lack of action" over illegal structures, he said.

"We may want to take a serious look at consolidating the authority, the responsibility of watching over Boracay to a centralized agency with sufficient power which will assume many of the various powers of the different national agencies are exercising now, which results to failure of management," he said during a Senate environment committee hearing.

President Rodrigo Duterte has branded the holiday island and its world-famous white-sand beach a "cesspool." He ordered visitors be kept away for 6 months starting April so establishments can treat sewage systems and illegal structures can be torn down.

The multi-agency task force supervising the island's rehabilitation can be a model for a permanent Boracay development authority, said Drilon.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV expressed confidence that the Senate can pass a pending law for the creation of the supervisory body by September.

ANC, 20 June 2018