28/11/2025
This is the part of El Nido you’ll never see on social media.
Because the truth is simple: the municipality collects ₱400 NTDF from every tourist, but does nothing to protect the reefs.
Every day, boats throw anchors directly on living corals — even though Philippine law makes this illegal.
And by the way…
👉 You know why boats use two ropes on their anchors?
Because one rope cuts, gets tangled, or slips when it hits the reef — so they use two to make sure the anchor grabs the coral harder.
Yes… they’re literally making the damage worse.
⚠️ REMINDER OF THE LAW (PHILIPPINES)
Damaging corals — including by anchoring on them — is a crime under:
• RA 8550 & RA 10654 (Fisheries Code):
👉 ₱500,000 to ₱10,000,000 fines
👉 10–20 years imprisonment
👉 Confiscation of boat + payment for reef restoration
Yet in El Nido:
❌ Boats still drop anchors on the reef
❌ Not enough mooring buoys
❌ No enforcement, no penalties
❌ No coral restoration
❌ No real protection inside a so-called “Protected Area”
And meanwhile, corals grow only 1 cm per year — one anchor drop destroys decades of life.
This is what they don’t show online: a fragile reef being smashed every day while fees are collected and nothing is protected.
If nothing changes, there will be no corals, no fish, no tourism — and no future.
💬 Protect the reef. Protect El Nido.
