Alona Beach, Bohol municipal dive fees & more - get ready to pay

[Gilligan]

I have a copy of the following Executive Order with highlighted areas by the ABCAI (Alona Beach Community Association, Inc.) which they feel are in conflict with the ordinance and need to be reviewed with the Mayor's Office.

EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 02-2010
Series of 2010
PRESCRIBING THE IMPLEMENTING RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE
IMPLEMENTION OF MUNICIPAL ORDINANCE NO. 03, SERIES OF 2008,
OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE ENVIRONMENTAL USERS ACTIVITY FEE SYSTEM
ORDINANCE OF PANGLAO, BOHOL

Some of the conflicts/questions relative to scuba diving are:

1. "All dive shops shall employ qualified dive guides for the protection of the divers and the marine environment. Boat carrying divers for a diving trip shall not leave its port or anchor station without a qualified dive guide".
Question by the ABCAI: What is the definition of a qualified dive guide?

2. Question by the ABCAI: The EUF token as stated for "3 days of diving and valid for 3 months" is incompatible with the ordinance which states "for more than 3 days of use in 3 months" so as to accommodate longer staying visitors.

3.Boundaries of the Dive Sites. "The municipality shall demarcate the dive sites using marker buoys. The dive sites shall be devoted solely for the purpose of diving and snorkeling activities".
Question by the ABCAI: None of the dive sites is presently marked and so fishing cannot presently be stopped. We agree the sites can only be used for diving & snorkeling. How will this be policed? By the divers?
Footnote to this; One of the sites is currently marked with buoys and men were fishing in it a few days ago!

The sign I posted did not specify the purpose of the PhP 100 for one day. The above executive order states "EUF Ticket for diving for one (1) day use".

More when I get more.

 

[clgsamson]

thanks, Jim.

 

[Gilligan]

I went to the Mayor's office this morning to get clarification on the dive fees. The staff was very accommodating and escorted me to the Treasurer's Office where I received the following explanation of the poster:

Item b - PhP100 is per person per day for scuba diving and they forgot to put Scuba Diving on the poster.

Item d - PhP500 translates to 3 days of diving during a 3 month period in order to get a souvenir token (EUF Token). The token is the reason the 3 dive days cost PhP500 and not 300. The tokens are not yet available.

This is what the dive ticket looks like. The snorkeling ticket looks the same only with "snorkeling" printed on it and a different amount (P50.00):

 

[reaver]

A tax to swim with the fish? Excellent business model, pure profits with no capital outlay.

Going back home to the PI does make for interesting encounters. We'll be hitting alona beach on the 17th of April and would be interesting to see how this plays out.