DUMAGUETE CITY (PNA) – The Protected Area Management Board (PMAB) of Apo Island in Dauin, Negros Oriental will meet on July 23 to tackle issues and concerns surrounding the recent destruction of coral reefs in one of its marine reserves and find legal and other measures to rehabilitate the area.

Apo Island has been declared by law as a Protected Landscape and Seascape and is an internationally famous dive destination.

Chief fish warden Mario Pascobello said over the weekend that Apo Island’s Protected Area Supervisor (PASu) Viernove Grefalde set the meeting after Dauin Vice Mayor Rodrigo Alanano called his attention on certain lapses involving the incident on June 25.

Among the concerns that Alanano had earlier raised was the seeming absence of communication and coordination among PAMB members and the local government of Dauin.

He also questioned the lifting of a suspension order against the yacht S/Y Philippine Siren in early July and allowed it to return to the island despite an ongoing investigation on the incident
Alanano, then mayor of Dauin until his term ended on June 30, complained that it took almost two weeks before he knew of the incident at which the S/Y Philippine Siren, a luxury dive yacht, had dislodged a mooring coral head across some 76 meters of coral reef.

Pascobello said an initial underwater survey he conducted showed what looked like a “mini runway” in the bottom of the ocean.

Expected to attend the meeting are the Region 7 director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR 7), who sits as chair of the PAMB, and board members to include Joy Gongob of the Provincial Planning and Development Office, Dr. Hilconida Calumpong of the Silliman University Marine Laboratory, Dauin local executives, and Apo Island village chieftain Liberty Pascobello Rhodes.