Boracay under heavy security on 1st day of closure

Police force with assault rifles are now patrolling entry points of the once-pristine Boracay island, following its closure today, April 26, for a six-month rehabilitation period. (PNA photo by Joey Razon)

Policemen with assault rifles are now patrolling entry points of the Boracay Island, following its closure today, April 26, for a six-month rehabilitation period.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP), Regional police head Cesar Binag said the White Beach was shut down past midnight, with only those Boracay residents with identification cards are allowed to board ferries.

Tourists, on the other hand, were blocked from boarding the ferry which will lead them to the island.

“Boracay is officially closed to tourists. We are not closing establishments but tourists cannot enter. We are implementing the instruction of the president,” Binag said.

There were nearly 600 government troops deployed in Boracay to respond to emergency scenarios that might happen during the clean-up.

“It looks like we are at war,” Jessica Gabay, a grocery seller, told AFP on Wednesday evening.

“Maybe the authorities are doing this to instill fear so people will follow the rules,” she added.

The police force started securing the beach on Thursday morning to impose a rule prohibiting swimming except in a designated area marked by buoys.

Boats are also barred from sailing within three kilometers or 1.

9 miles of the shoreline and only residents of Boracay are allowed to fish in its waters.

According to AFP, the Philippine government said this high-security presence “was intended to squelch any unrest from those unhappy with the shutdown, including some of the roughly 30,000 people employed in the island’s bustling tourist trade.”

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the closure earlier this month after he called the island a “cesspool.”

The recommendation to shut down the White Beach came from the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources, Interior and Local Government, and Tourism.

On Wednesday, a day before the paradise’s closure, a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to halt Boracay shutdown was filed.

[READ: Boracay closure faces first petition before the SC]

Petitioners Mark Anthony Zaal and Thiting Jacosale, residents working in Boracay, and a tourist who occasionally visited the island pointed out in their petition that the closure of the tourist spot is a “patent abuse of power and reckless disregard of law.”