ABSOLUTELY no tourists will be allowed to enter Boracay once the six-month shutdown begins on April 26, and even establishments that comply with the law must close as a major cleanup begins on the country’s best-known holiday island, the government said Thursday.
“Everyone, whethear compliant or not, will have to make a sacrifice here,” said Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo, speaking in Filipino to radio dzMM.
“Definitely, no tourists, local or foreign, will be allowed inside,” she added.
Teo said the government will demolish some 900 structures within the 30-meter no-build zone along the shoreline, as well those on wetlands or forest lands.
The Tourism secretary said the government will also clean-up other top destinations after Boracay, including Panglao, Samal and El Nido.
“We will go to all the big destinations and see if there are any violations [of environmental laws],” she said.
On Wednesday, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque announced the six-month shutdown over concerns that the once idyllic white-sand resort has become a “cesspool” tainted by dumped sewage.
“Boracay is known as a paradise in our nation and this temporary closure is [meant] to ensure that the next generations will also experience that,” Roque told reporters.
The decision jeopardizes the livelihood of thousands employed as part of a bustling tourist trade on the island that each year serves two-million guests and pumps roughly $1 billion in revenue into the economy.
Experts said the measure also appeared to contradict the government’s own pro-development policy for the island, including the recent approval of a planned $500-million casino and resort on Boracay.
The threat of closure first emerged in February when Duterte blasted the tiny island’s 500 tourism-related hotels, restaurants and other businesses, accusing them of dumping sewage directly into the sea and turning it into a cesspool.
Authorities said Thursday some businesses were using the island’s drainage system to send untreated sewage into its surrounding turquoise waters.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources says 195 businesses, along with more than 4,000 residential customers, are not connected to sewer lines.
But within weeks of Duterte lashing out at the local businesses, the Philippines gave the green light for Macau casino giant Galaxy Entertainment to begin construction next year of a casino and resort complex.
“The casino contradicts all the efforts now of cleaning up and making sure Boracay goes back to the state where it doesn’t violate its carrying capacity,” former Environment undersecretary Antonio La Vina said.
He added that the area has seen “unlimited” development because “local government units and the national government agencies did not do their job of enforcing rules on land use, environmental impact assessment.”
Authorities said they would use the closure to build new sewage and drainage systems, demolish structures built on wetlands and sue officials and businessmen who violated environmental laws.
These could include the mayor of Malay, Aklan, Ceciron Cawaling, after the Department of the Interior and Local Government said it would investigate the allocation of P1 billion in environmental fees collected over the last 10 years from tourists who visited the island.
The impact of the decision to shut down Boracay was already being felt, with domestic airlines announcing they would scale back the number of flights to the 1,000-hectare island.
“I am really in a quandary on how to handle six months [of closure],” budget hostel manager Manuel Raagas said.
“There will be no income and we have bills to pay so I don’t know how I will survive.”
Officials said they were willing to take a hard line, saying police and potentially even soldiers would enforce the closure.
“We will issue guidelines on how to bar tourists from entering starting from the port,” Interior Assistant Secretary Epimaco Densing told reporters on Thursday.
“Whether foreign or local, they will not be allowed to enter the island.”
The Boracay Foundation Inc., a business association on the island, had asked the government to shut down only those violating environmental laws.
“It’s unfair for compliant establishments to be affected by the closure,” Executive Director Pia Miraflores said.
—Boracay Foundation Inc. executive director Pia Miraflores
Miraflores said that even before the ban was announced, its shadow had hit some businesses hard in Boracay.
“The tour guides have already complained that they have no more guests. There’s already a huge effect,” she said, adding the quays and jetties were “less crowded” than before.
Some couples who scheduled their weddings on the island up to a year or two in advance had canceled their reservations even before the ban was announced, she said, with the tour agents also besieged with client calls on whether to pursue their planned trips.
Boracay employs 17,000 people, as well as 11,000 construction workers working on new projects.
A constant critic of President Duterte, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said there was a hidden motive behind his decision to close Boracay.
“Why was it closed? I don’t believe that Duterte is an environmentalist. He also did this to the mining sector, but he merely caused the lowering of stock [prices] since there were some who bought them,” Trillanes said at the Kapihan sa Senado forum.
“So I believe there’s a [hidden] agenda because if you really want to fix the sewage, it can be done without closing [the island],” Trillanes said.
He said he suspected the shutdown was related to the approval of a casino and resort complex that wil be built on the island next year.
Senator JV Ejercito said that in principle, he fully supports the decision of the President to close Boracay for six months to allow thetourist destination to recuperate from the environmental stress it has suffered over the years.
“I have stated in the past that we need to allow Boracay to breathe and at the same time allow us to rethink our policies in order to ensure the sustainability of tourism in that area,” he said.
However, Ejercito said he hopes Duterte would reconsider the effectivity of the order.
“My proposal is to close Boracay this coming June which is considered as off season, to minimize the disruption to the bookings and reservations already made by tourists,” he said.
He added that he welcomed the President’s plan to use the calamity fund to help workers affected by the closure.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the government should attach “performance targets” to the six-month closure “so there will be a measurable outcome.”
“What are the countable outputs after six months? How many kilometers of sewer lines will be fixed? How big an improvement will there be in water [quality]? How many illegal shoreline structures were removed?” Recto said in a mix of English and Filipino.
“Such a master plan is needed,” Recto said, “so that at the end of six months, we will have a before and after comparison table.”
Data from the Boracay Foundation show that some 19,000 people work in the formal sector including hotels, resorts, restaurants, dive shops, souvenir shops, tour activity centers, and transport providers; while another 17,000 work in the informal sector as massage therapists, tattoo artists, and vendors by the beach.
In the House, the Boracay shutdown was supported by administration ally Rep. Rodolfo Albano of Isabela, who said the closure was needed to rehabilitate the island.
Earlier, the House committee on tourism, chaired by Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez, also supported the proposal to temporarily shut down Boracay Island. With AFP
