Boracay closure faces first petition before the SC

The six-month closure, according to them, violate the constitutional rights of all the people residing and making their living on the island (Pixabay photo)

As the paradise island awaits its ordered closure, three individuals filed a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to halt its shutting.

Petitioners Mark Anthony Zaal and Thiting Jacosale, residents working in Boracay, and a tourist who occasionally visited the island, assisted by the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), in their 29-page petition for prohibition and mandamus included President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año as respondents.

The petitioners pointed out that the shutdown of the tourist spot is a “patent abuse of power and reckless disregard of law.

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The six-month closure, according to them, violates the constitutional rights of all the people residing and making their living in the island. Tourists are also deprived of their right to travel because of it.

However, they cited that the law only prohibits travel in the case of a threat to national security, public safety, or public health.

“There is no national security, public safety, or public health situation calling for the curtailment of the right to travel,” the petition read.

“More importantly, there is no law restricting access to Boracay Island. By that fact alone, the respondents’ act of closing the same to tourists and non-residents is clearly unconstitutional,” it added.

The President ordered the six-month closure of the island starting on April 26, Thursday, for an environmental clean-up.

Earlier in February, Duterte threatened to close the tourist destination, branding it as a ‘cesspool’ after he recalled one of his visits.

“I will Boracay. Boracay is a cesspool,” he said.

“But you go into the water, it’s smelly. Smell of what? S***. Kasi lahat doon, ang palabas nila, sa (because everything there ended up to) Boracay… it’s destroying the environment or the Republic of the Philippines and creating a disaster coming,” Duterte added.

In March, the President also threatened to arrest Boracay local officials and business owners who will not cooperate with his administration’s investigation and rehabilitation plans. He blamed these officials and owners saying that they are the ones responsible for the damages that the island is suffering from.