{"id":161603,"date":"2018-04-26T06:05:57","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T10:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=161603"},"modified":"2018-04-26T06:05:57","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T10:05:57","slug":"boracay-under-heavy-security-on-1st-day-of-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/26\/boracay-under-heavy-security-on-1st-day-of-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"Boracay under heavy security on 1st day of closure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Police<\/a>
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)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Tourists, on the other hand, were blocked from boarding the ferry which will lead them to the island.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

There were nearly 600 government troops deployed in Boracay to respond to emergency scenarios that might happen during the clean-up.<\/p>\n

“It looks like we are at war,” Jessica Gabay, a grocery seller, told AFP on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

“Maybe the authorities are doing this to instill fear so people will follow the rules,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

According to AFP, the Philippine government said this high-security presence \u201cwas intended to squelch any unrest from those unhappy with the shutdown, including some of the roughly 30,000 people employed in the island\u2019s bustling tourist trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the closure earlier this month after he called the island a \u201ccesspool.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recommendation to shut down the White Beach came from the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources, Interior and Local Government, and Tourism.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a day before the paradise\u2019s closure, a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to halt Boracay shutdown was filed.<\/p>\n

[READ:\u00a0Boracay closure faces <\/a>first petition before the SC]<\/a><\/p>\n

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 \u201cpatent abuse of power and reckless disregard of law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Policemen with assault rifles are now patrolling entry points of the Boracay Island, following its closure today, April 26, for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":161629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[49314,50279],"class_list":["post-161603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-boracay-closure","tag-heavy-security","mauthors-joanna-belle-deala","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161603","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=161603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}