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Friday, April 13, 2018

One of the worlds most beautiful islands is closed to the public

Por Nina

The island of Boracay, located about 300 kilometers south of Manila, is one of the quintessential tourist destinations of the Philippines and the transparent waters and fine sand of White Beach, its main beach, have positioned the place as one of the most attractive world, it received two million visitors last year.

However, that paradise will close to the public from next April 26, according to confirmed earlier this month the Philippine presidential spokesman, Harry Roque, quoted by Radio Mindanao Network. That spokesman said that the measure will be valid for six months to rehabilitate the site and recover both its waters and its natural environment. The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, already declared in early February that the island was "a sewer" and stressed that its water and beaches "smell like shit" because of the massive flow of tourists, the inadequate disposal of waste and the misuse of the drainage system.

Therefore, the official objective is to modernize the sewer system in order to prevent hotel complexes and other businesses from dumping their wastewater directly into the sea. Initially, Boracay was going to close for two months or in several phases, but the departments of Interior, Tourism and Environment recommended a prolonged closure, according to the newspaper The Philippine Star. Roque confirmed that the Government will allocate an aid fund for the approximately 35,000 workers that will be affected. Some calculations indicate that the losses could reach 1,000 million dollars.

However, this decision has provoked protests by businessmen and employees of the tourism sector, who condemn that the measure could lead them to a financial crisis. This initiative has caused the discontent of some sectors of the Government and certain environmental experts, after last month a Chinese firm was granted the license to build a hotel complex and a casino in Boracay worth 500 million dollars. In this regard, the Philippine senator Antonio Trillares said that the closure of the area has nothing to do with environmental reasons and his real intention is to launch that project. Duterte denied that accusation and said that after the cleanup, the island will undergo an agrarian reform to urge the peasants to reactivate agricultural activities in some areas.