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For those of you that have seen we were hit with a fine for violations of ECC conditions, we wanted to address the situation and how we have responded.

Upon our investigation initiated by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, our findings were as follows:

The Mad Monkey local general manager was at the time overcoming a strong typhoon that had hit the island, causing damage and compromising our waste management protocols.

However, upon investigation we found that our standard processes and policies were not followed adequately, and as a result, the senior member of staff responsible decided to resign from the company. 

To ensure this will not happen again, we have updated our global Health, Safety and Compliance documentation. We have trained and deployed personnel within this department at global, regional and property levels.

The role of this department is to ensure all operating policies and procedures related to Health, Safety and Compliance remain updated and implemented in line with national laws and internal standards. 
On-site quarterly Health, Safety and Compliance audits are conducted internally in each property by trained Regional officers, and at least one team member per property must be trained in Level II Health & Safety and Pollution Control and is assigned the responsibility of securing the implementation of these standards on a day-to-day basis.  

Mad Monkey is committed to maintaining the highest standards in our operation at all times. When things do go wrong, it is important that we admit it and improve our processes whilst being transparent to our stakeholders.

We would like to apologize to all of our community stakeholders in Siargao for this oversight in our operating procedures. Mad Monkey has worked with the local stakeholder team and local authorities to re-establish our compliance, repair the damage and pay all fines relating to the matter. 

Should anyone have any suggestions or feel we could further improve on this process, please do not hesitate to contact our team.

Since 2011 Mad Monkey Hostels has operated across Southeast Asia by being sustainable in our operations. Having identified this process issue, we are confident that our processes for dealing with disaster situations, such as typhoons, now have a rigorous pollution control process supporting their management.

About the Author

Mad Monkey is Southeast Asia’s leading hostel operator — born in Cambodia with more properties in Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Laos, and the Philippines. We pride ourselves in creating meaningful and sustainable travel experiences for our guests, whilst promoting socially responsible tourism.