The Department of Tourism (DOT) is coordinating with concerned agencies to provide necessary assistance and solutions to the perennial water pollution problems that have been plaguing the towns of Coron and El Nido, Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said.
Frasco said the DOT has been working with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) where she recently had a meeting with the secretaries and the mayors of the towns of Coron and El Nido to discuss the problem.
“This is coming out of the initial meeting that we had in Manila a few months ago to emphasize the national government’s support to ensure the sustainable tourism development of Palawan, specific also to these two LGUs,” Frasco said in an interview with the media.
But while the problem is being jointly dealt with by the three government agencies, she stated that from the end of the DOT, its attached agency Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) is working with the local government of El Nido to “provide assistance, especially in terms of their sewage treatment facilities, as well as their water treatment facilities.”
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“There are ongoing negotiations between TIEZA, DOT, and El Nido,” she said.
For the part of Coron, she said they are waiting for feedback from the LGU regarding the availability of a property where a sewage treatment plant can be constructed.
Frasco further stated that the concern is being worked out through the collaboration between the three agencies with the end goal of helping the LGUs, “even as we urge them to continue to strictly implement yung ating mga environmental regulatory measures to ensure the safety of our tourists.”
The secretary, however, did not comment on the issue of the temporary closure of El Nido’s tourism industry.
