Philippines plans party crackdown on re-opened Boracay

By BLOOMBERG

MANILA • Beach boozing and smoking will be consigned to the past when Boracay, the Philippines’ top holiday island, welcomes back a capped number of tourists after its six-month shutdown, authorities said yesterday.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the resort shuttered to visitors in April, after declaring years of unchecked growth had turned the white-sand idyll into a “cesspool”.

When hotel doors re-open on Oct 26, the island known for its party atmosphere will crack down on drinking and smoking on its beaches, while only 19,000 tourists will be allowed at any one time.

The rules are aimed at protecting the island’s fragile ecosystem, where up to 40,000 beach goers were unwinding on its sand and swimming in its turquoise waters at peak periods.

“We wanted the beachfront to be clean and to be occupied by tourists,” Environment Undersecretary Sherwin Rigor said on ABS-CBN TV.

The government said Boracay’s closure contributed to a sharp slowdown in Philippine economic growth in the second quarter, but Duterte said the cleanup was worth it.

The government will only allow 6,000 hotel rooms, half the current total, with the rest seen going out of business for failing to comply with environmental and other regulations, the official said.

Boracay hotels are now required to put up their own sewage treatment plants, while garbage will be put on a barge every night and shipped across the sea to a landfill, Rigor said.