Until reforms can be implemented

Gov Aris recommends

Virgin island closure

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Sept 4 (PIA)—Already learning a hard lesson when he got suspended without any direct participation in the buildings within the Chocolate Hills protected area, Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado is now covering every possible base which can get him another trouble.

This time, as Chairman of the Panglao Island Protected Seascapes (PIPS), if given the blanket authority to decide, Aumentado said he would ban human activities (specifically snorkeling) and dropping of anchors within the fragile PIPS coral reefs and seagrass beds.

“Allowing human activity inside a protected area where the government has to physical capability to oversee, is another suspension waiting to happen,” according to the governor, in a recent interview.

In fact, another suspension is the least of the governor’s concern.

Legislated as a protected area under the expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act or (Republic Act 11038) which expanded the initial list of protected areas (Republic Act 7586) in the country and provided for their management, PIPS comprises 24.62 square kilometers of coasts, seagrass beds declared habitat for migratory Chinese egrets, with pristine coral reef areas, mangroves patches, all the reason for an observed high density of marine biodiversity.

While PIPS comprises of only a small portion of the whole of the seascapes in Panglao island which is Bohol’s premier tourism island, its protection, as per eNIPAS Act is managed by a local Protected Area Management Board: a multi sectoral and inter-agency policy-making body which is tasked to implement protection and management activities, under the supervision of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“Virgin island, considering it as part of the protected seascapes, is under the DENR, while Panglao Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO) implements supervision and monitoring of the seascapes off the PIPS,” explained Rojeine Sedillo, MENRO Panglao officer in charge.

According to Sedillo, the office oversees 21 dive sites, 3 snorkel areas and 110 dive shops and centers sending tourists into these municipal government controlled sites.

Virgin island, which is part of the PIPS is beyond the Panglao MENRO sphere.

Already locally considered as a strict protection zone considering its high biodiversity value, PIPS is supposedly closed to all human activity, except for scientific studies and ceremonial or religious use by indigenous cultural communities.

Based on the information surfacing during the meeting with the governor’s reef assessment team, Monday, the DENR, which monitors and oversees the activities within the protected area, admitted that they have collected environmental access fees for those entering the protected areas.

However, while the DENR also conducts inspection and accompanies groups entering the protected area, there are only two divers assigned here to check that every group acts in accordance with the sustainable resource practices.

Between August 27 to August 29, the DENR said 97 boats got into the area, according to the DENR, which issues access receipts to tourists.

“We have divers who check on the activities, but we can not get to all of them,” Teofilo Gamil Jr., PIPS coordinator assigned in Panglao, admitted.

While the DENR divers were with other groups, some snorkelers anchored at the Estaca snorkeling site off Virgin Island were documented destroying table corals by writing names on them.

According to dive instructor and environment advocate Danilo Menorias, some inch-thick markings, letters measuring two to three feet long were written across a table coral some 12 meters wide.

The intrusion also caused the corals to break off.

Menorias, who was among the reef inspection team also reported that without any anchoring buoy in Virgin island, boat men simply drop anchors anywhere, breaking corals and plowing across sandy substrate.

Infuriated by this, Gov. Aumentado said he would recommend the closure of Virgin Island, until the DENR can resolve the unsustainable practices happening within the PIPS.

During the meeting, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Jose Cleo Colis said the DENR would meet with the PIPS PAMB within the week, to talk on the recommendations and reforms that need to be implemented at the PIPS. (RAHC/PIA_7/Bohol)

PROTECTED AND YET WITH ACCESS. DENR Bohol PENRO Jose Cleo Colis said the DENR has a team of green divers who can ably mentor divers of the sustainable dive practices, even as he admitted that there have been a rise in human activity inside the PIPS in the recent months. (PIABohol)