{"id":161490,"date":"2018-04-25T06:24:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T10:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=161490"},"modified":"2018-04-25T06:24:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T10:24:55","slug":"boracay-closure-faces-first-petition-before-the-sc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/25\/boracay-closure-faces-first-petition-before-the-sc\/","title":{"rendered":"Boracay closure faces first petition before the SC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"As<\/a>
The six-month closure, according to them, violate the constitutional rights of all the people residing\u00a0and making their living on the island (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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 A\u00f1o as respondents.<\/p>\n

The petitioners pointed out that the shutdown of the tourist spot is a \u201cpatent abuse of power and reckless disregard of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, they cited that the law only prohibits travel in the case of a threat to national security, public safety, or public health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no national security, public safety, or public health situation calling for the curtailment of the right to travel,\u201d the petition read.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore importantly, there is no law restricting access to Boracay Island. By that fact alone, the respondents\u2019 act of closing the same to tourists and non-residents is clearly unconstitutional,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

The President ordered the six-month closure of the island starting on April 26, Thursday, for an environmental clean-up.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI will Boracay. Boracay is a cesspool,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you go into the water, it\u2019s smelly. Smell of what? S***. Kasi lahat doon, ang palabas nila, sa <\/em>(because everything there ended up to) Boracay\u2026 it\u2019s destroying the environment or the Republic of the Philippines and creating a disaster coming,\u201d Duterte added.<\/p>\n

In March, the President also threatened to arrest Boracay local officials and business owners who will not cooperate with his administration\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the paradise island awaits its ordered closure, three individuals filed a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to issue …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":152141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[2747,1144],"class_list":["post-161490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-boracay","tag-supreme-court","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}