Aklan 1st District Rep. Carlito Marquez has sought the creation of the Boracay Island Development Authority (BIDA) in a bid to protect the island and its nearby frontier.
Marquez filed House Bill No. 7256, which calls for the setting up of the BIDA, which shall exercise regulatory and supervisory authority over the delivery of zone-wide services within Boracay island and Caticlan without diminution of the autonomy of the local government units (LGUs) concerning local matters.
“The concerns surrounding the enhancement of Boracay Island and nearby Caticlan are no longer a purely local matter but a national trepidation that require concerted national and local cooperation and synchronization of plans and programs,” Marquez said in his bill’s explanatory note.
“There is a need to re-establish and enhanced inter-agency or development authority which will formulate, implement, and oversee policies, as well as strictly enforce national laws and local ordinances, to ensure the rehabilitation and ecological sustainability of Boracay Island and nearby Caticlan,” he stressed.
HB 7256 provides that the Boracay Island and Catalan, which is composed of four barangays, shall be constituted into a special development and tourism zone, subject to direct supervision of the President of the Philippines.
Under the bill, zone-wide services under the jurisdiction of the BIDA are those services which have zone-wide impact and transcend local political boundaries or entail huge expenditures such as that it would not be viable for such services to be provided by the individual LGUs comprising Boracay and Catalan.
These services shall include: development planning, transport and traffic management, solid waste disposal and management, flood control and sewerage management; urban renewal, zoning, and land use planning, and shelter services; health and sanitation, urban protection and pollution control; public safety, and tourism.
“Rest assured that this proposed measure does not grant the BIDA with police power, let alone legislative power, and that all its functions are only administrative in nature. The BIDA is not a local government unit or a public corporation endowed with legislative power, it has no power to enact ordinances for the welfare of the community,” Marquez explained.
Under the bill, the governing board and policy-making body of the BIDA shall be the Boracay Island Development Council. The Council shall be composed of the governor of Aklan, the mayor of the municipality of Malay, the barangay chairmen of the Barangays Manoc-Manoc, Balabag, Yapak, and Caticlan in the municipality of Malay, and the president of the Boracay Foundation, Incorporated (BFI), the president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Boracay (PCCI Boracay and two representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) concerning Boracay Island.
The Council shall be headed by the Chairman who shall be appointed by the President and who shall continue to hold office at the discretion of the appointing authority.
HB 7256 provides P2 billion funding for the initial operation of the BIDA. Thereafter, the annual expenditures including capital outlays of the BIDA shall be provided in the General Appropriations Act, it provides.
The three barangays of Boracay Island and Caticlan shall continue to receive the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) currently allocated to them, it said.
Marquez’s measure empowers the BIDA to levy, fine and impose fees and charges for various services rendered.
“This proposed measure aims to regain the lost glory of the island paradise and put once again in the world tourism radar,” Marquez said.