Thread: Boracay closed for 6 months starting April 26

Same as Phi Phi really. The rush to overbuild and cram as many fucking tourists in as you can, and it's all done in a hurry without the appropriate infrastructure; you then end up dumping the shit, piss and rubbish somewhere nearby.

They should demolish what shouldn't be there and control what should to ensure a sustainable environment. Shutting it down for a six month cleanup is just kicking the can down the road.

Originally Posted by Gazza

I remember reading about Boracay in a newspaper supplement article in 1983. No electricity and the only accommodation were straw huts for
a few US$ per night.

Funnily enough that was Phi Phi the first time I went there.

The last time you could see from one side of the beach to the other was after the tsunami cleaned the fucking lot out.

It didn't take them long to trash it again.

On another note...

Not just Boracay: Banaue Rice Terraces also need help | ABS-CBN News

Accdg to that article, it's not just Boracay that needs help - the rice terraces in the north need help too. Destruction is mostly due to erosion - many rice fields/ terraces have been abandoned since the younger ppl do not want to be farmers. Pics of hill tribe women in native costumes in the link, if anyone's interested.

Originally Posted by katie23

On another note...

Not just Boracay: Banaue Rice Terraces also need help | ABS-CBN News

Accdg to that article, it's not just Boracay that needs help - the rice terraces in the north need help too. Destruction is mostly due to erosion - many rice fields/ terraces have been abandoned since the younger ppl do not want to be farmers. Pics of hill tribe women in native costumes in the link, if anyone's interested.

I was there in 1979. It was in good shape back then. Beautiful and impressive. But who can blame the young people that they don't want to do this work any more? Nothing that can be done I think.

Mass layoffs in Boracay even before the April 26 scheduled closure...

Mass layoffs start on Boracay Island | Inquirer News

A colleague is in Boracay now. She said in an FB post (as answer to a query from a friend) that the water in White Beach still has algae. Relatively lots of tourists now accdg to her, since it was a 3-day weekend. Will ask her for more updates.

@takeovers - I haven't been to Banaue, but I've been to Sagada where there are also rice terraces. Along the way to Sagada, some rice fields have been converted to veggie farms. Sagada is now a popular destination among locals (esp among yuppies), ever since it was featured in a local movie. I went there 2 years ago & posted pics (but pics are gone due to Photobucket). Most memorable (for me) was the cave exploration and the sunrise among the clouds.

^yes, a life of farming is a hard life. In many of those mountain communities, whether in the north or elsewhere, stores and schools are few. Kids have to walk several kilometers just to get to a public school. I once went with a mountaineering group in Marinduque island to trek and distribute school supplies - it was a trek + community outreach event. Kids in the mountains looked poor and they were glad to see/ receive our group (and the school supplies). My group's organizers had coordinated with the school teachers in the mountains. Kids lined up to receive the supplies. That hike was done in May, so that the kids would have notebooks & stuff for the opening of classes in June. I think we went to 5 different schools/ barangays in the mountains. Some areas didn't have electricity. It's not surprising that the kids want to escape the mountains & farming when they grow up.

Back to Boracay, most of the workers there are transplants - just there for work and not native to the island. The massage ladies in the spa that I went to were mostly from Bulacan, Pampanga or Tarlac (Central Luzon), since the owner was from Bulacan and hired ppl from her area. Those workers will be displaced when Boracay closes...

Update to this thread - had a chat with the colleague who was in Boracay last week. Accdg to her, Boracay will indeed be closed to tourists by April 26. By the 18th, boat tours will be stopped. Many beachfront establishments are/will have their facades destroyed because they violate the space needed (easement?) before the beach. The plan is to build a road near the coastline. So it's to be hotel, road, trees, beach then sea.

By April 26, only those living in the island (official residents) will be able to go enter by boat. The plan is to give ID cards to the residents. Flights to Boracay will be stopped. Many places are already closing/ planning to close since they cannot maintain their businesses during the 6-month closure.

From the grapevine: there were lots of resorts/hotels which don't have permits to operate but paid up to 100k pesos (~2k USD) as tea money. These were also the businesses which didn't have proper sewer facilities.

Re: those who had pre-booked, they were advised by the establishments to have their vacation earlier, prior to the 26th.

Originally Posted by katie23

Re: those who had pre-booked, they were advised by the establishments to have their vacation earlier, prior to the 26th.

Oh my. Hurry up. Get your slice of paradise before it closes to clean up beaches, stop raw sewage running into the water, build a new road and some new hotels.

Certainly will be right up there for "best tourism promotion award of the year".

Reads like another paradise lost to tourism with everyone wanting to touch paradise as the world continues to get more accessible and connected.

(Wondering - did Johannesburg run out of water yet ?)

Cloudy days ahead for Philippine tourism

President Rodrigo Duterte's order to close Boracay island in the name of reform has raised questions about his true intentions

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to shut down the country’s leading tourist destination, Boracay island, threatens to put the crucial foreign currency-earning industry into a tailspin.

The surprise decision, announced earlier this month, has underscored the mercurial leader’s often erratic and unpredictable rule and underscored its growing impact on the economy.


It has also sparked debate on the impact of mass tourism on the country’s natural environment, an issue plaguing many of the region’s seaside destinations with the recent surge in Chinese tourism.



Boracay, a paradisian beach island with pearl white sands in the nation’s central region, will be closed to tourists for six months beginning later this month until October so the government can undertake a cleanup and land reform.


As a result, more than US$1 billion in expected revenues as well as employment for more than 36,000 tourism workers now hangs in the balance, according to industry estimates.


Some businesses have already started to lay off employees en masse in anticipation of the shutdown and dramatic drop in tourist arrivals during the peak summer season.


A beach view at Boracay in the Philippines, April 9, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Erik De Castro

The government has sought to justify the move by raising environmental concerns amid a recent surge in both local and international tourists, the latter coming mainly from China as well as South Korea.


The decision came after a meeting between Duterte and government chiefs of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Tourism and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.


Duterte earlier described the beach resort as a “cesspool”, though levels of toxicity in the area’s waters are relatively lower than other major urban centers and tourist spots.


Many are thus questioning Duterte’s true motivation in light of reports that he is planning to give massive land rights to a Chinese casino tycoon who has offered to build a US$500 million gambling complex on the island. The government announced last week that the plan had been shelved.


Concerned about a backlash, especially with growing public suspicion about Duterte’s cozy ties with Beijing, the Filipino president perfunctorily announced earlier that he plans instead to give the island to farmers.


“It’s going to be a land reform area for the Filipinos. I will clean up the place then give the land back to them [farmers],” Duterte announced shortly before his departure for the Boao Forum for Asia in China, his third official visit to the country in less than two years.


Then presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte stands in front of a campaign poster on November 30, 2015. Photo: AFP/Noel Celis

Land rights are an issue on the island. Back in 2006, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Proclamation No 1064, an order which classified the island tourist destination into a mix of agricultural and forestland.


Up to 400 hectares of Boracay’s forestlands were sequestered for “protection purposes” while the remaining 628 hectares of agricultural land, or 60% of the island’s terrain, were classified as “alienable and disposable.”


Two years later, the Philippine Supreme Court upheld the decision despite opposition from some local residents who claimed ownership over some of the lands had been placed under state control.


Duterte has also claimed that he wasn’t aware of plans for a mega-casino on the island. “There is no plan for any casino, since there have been too many [casinos] here and there,” Duterte claimed. “Consider Boracay a land reform area. I will give it to the farmers, to the Filipinos first…to the people who need it the most.”


Duterte’s claims, however, don’t stand up to scrutiny. Pictures from the Malacanang presidential palace show the Filipino president met last December 6 with Lui Che-woo, chairman of Galaxy Entertainment, a Macau-based gaming company which has pledged US$500 million to construct a mega-casino at Boracay.


A sand sculpture is seen in front of a restaurant along a beach at Boracay, Philippines April 9, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Erik De Castro

During the presidential palace meeting, Philippine Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo as well as Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) chairperson Andrea Domingo were in attendance. Statements by the Pagcor chief confirmed the centrality of Galaxy’s Boracay investment during the discussions between Duterte and Lui.


“I don’t think they would risk losing that investment by dumping filth in front of their property,” Domingo said in response to concerns over the environmental sustainability of building a mega-casino in Boracay.


Many Boracay residents, meanwhile, question the wisdom of land reform, since much of the island’s public land has already been occupied by residential structures and small and medium scale enterprises. Any land reform would entail driving tens of thousands of people off the island for the conversion of land into farms.


Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes has accused Duterte of blatantly lying to cover up his real motive behind the closure. “I don’t believe that Mr Duterte is an environmentalist,” declared the outspoken legislator.


Tourists ride on a sailboat during sunset in Boracay in Philippines, April 8, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Erik De Castro

Trillanes has called for a Senate inquiry into the shutdown and encouraged Boracay residents to challenge the executive decision in court by requesting temporary restraining orders (TROs) against its enforcement.


“I suspect that the reason they shut down Boracay is to allow cargo in – cement or whatever – to build that casino. That’s my suspicion but we will validate that because it doesn’t make sense at all to close it,” Trillanes said.


Senator Joel Villanueva has raised similar questions over Duterte’s “haste” to close the tourist island, wondering why “the rehabilitation plan and livelihood interventions for the workers has not been clearly set in motion first before the closure of Boracay.”


The dynamics of the closure are still unclear, with different departments issuing contradictory directives on the exact date, parameters for limiting visitors and stopgap measures for those who will lose wages and business during the shutdown period.


What is clear is that Duterte’s professed lurch towards environmentalism and land reform will not go unchallenged as an alleged conflict of interest that benefits big money over common Filipino interests.


Cloudy days ahead for Philippine tourism | Asia Times

^confirms what I said in a former post (#24) that there are talks of building a big casino-hotel, Chinese owned... my colleague heard it from the grapevine - probably from the boatmen.

Still according to the grapevine: Manny Pacquiao's mansion (he has a big, white mansion in another part of the island. IIRC it's in BLD's thread) - Manny's mansion will be torn down, because it's too close to the sea. Oh well, he's got millions and other mansions...

https://globalnation.inquirer.net/16...tte-mangrobang

American Boracay resort owner arrested
Bureau of Immigration (BI) agents have arrested an American tourist for illegally operating a beach resort on Boracay island.


BI Commissioner Jaime Morente on Monday identified the foreigner as 52-year old Randall Lee Parker, who was apprehended on April 25, barely a day before Boracay was closed by the government.


Parker was arrested by BI intelligence operatives inside The Artienda, the resort he was illegally operating at Boracay’s Station Two, Morente said.


The BI chief disclosed that he ordered Parker’s arrest after a complaint was filed against him for running the resort “without the appropriate work permit or visa.”


“He will undergo deportation proceedings for illegally working in the country,” Morente said in a statement.


He stressed that both the Labor Code and the Immigration Act “strictly forbid aliens from engaging in gainful activity unless they obtain a work permit from the labor department and employment visa from the BI.”


Morente said that Parker, who arrived in the country as a tourist, “blatantly violated the conditions of his stay as a temporary visitor” by engaging in such business activities.


Parker has been in the Philippines as a tourist for almost two years after arriving on April 16, 2016, BI spokeswoman Atty. Antonette Mangrobang said.


The spokeswoman bared that Parker’s stay as a tourist was supposed to be extended up to June 14 before his illegal operation was discovered. Previously, the American had gone in and out of the country since 2005, she added.


“Existing laws that regulate the employment of aliens in the country are intended to ensure that their activities in the country are consistent with their immigration documentation,” Mangrobang said.


“The rule is that aliens holding tourist visas are not allowed to engage in any form of gainful employment or business activity,” she stressed.

^Those filipinos are more bent than the Thais.

That American looks like an albino......and he lives on the beach.

Originally Posted by Dillinger

^Those filipinos are more bent than the Thais.

Not sure what's 'bent' about arresting some ass who's working illegally and violating the conditions of his visa.

^^most night owl sexual predators are that colour Davis

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Not sure what's 'bent' about arresting some ass who's working illegally and violating the conditions of his visa

Call me cynical but it reads to me that he'd been doing it for years and got nicked a day before Boracay closed. Obviously because he'd stopped paying tea money

^Could be. Or could be they just picked up on it when they were reviewing all of the operating permits, etc, etc for all Boracay establishments - which they've been doing for the past few weeks. Foreigners can work in resorts here, can own them as well. Swiss neighbor here has a large resort in Puerto Galera - the albino just decided to do it illegally.....and got caught (for whatever reason).

So can foreigners without Pinoy wife own freehold land to build a single home for there own residence or a ready built house in Malaysia there is a minimum value so as to not out price the locals?

^Bit of a run together sentence there, David. But in answer to the first part, I believe you need to be married to a Filipina. I am a permanent resident, and my wife is dual US/Phil. House is listed in both our names, but in the unlikely event she would predecease me, I suspect I would run into legal problems.

^ I'm not sure that I remember the laws on real estate correctly. But as I remember, a foreigner cannot own land, but they can own condo units. In a condo building, the foreign ownership must not be more than 40% of the units. The land (plus house) that Davis owns are in both his & her names. Since his wife is a Filipina, she can own land and the authorities probably weren't too strict on his name being in the land title too.

Re: businesses, foreigners can own 40% of businesses only, unless the business is located in a special economic zone, operated by PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) - those are special cases. However, many businesses go around the 60-40 rule by hiring dummy partners, making dummy corporations or making sham marrsiages. For the 3rd one (sham marriages), I've heard that many Chinese men do it (marry Filipinas - either for real or just in paper) to be able to operate businesses or acquire land (the land is in the name of a Filipina).

The info that I've said above may be outdated, since it's what I remember from my uni days.

Re: the American tourist who was working in Boracay without a permit, I think he's only fair to do deport him if he doesn't have the right papers. If I go somewhere as a tourist, then I am not eligible to work in that country. Same rules should be applied to the Merkin in the OP. Yes, maybe he didn't pay his tea money or someone ratted on him or police are really just stricter now because of Boracay closure, or all of the above. Bottom line is, he didn't have the proper papers and should be deported.

Originally Posted by katie23

If I go somewhere as a tourist, then I am not eligible to work in that country. Same rules should be applied to the Merkin

If you went to Merka as a tourist do you also think that you should be treated like tourists in your home country and be able to bribe your way past corrupt officials and go around kidnapping?

[QUOTE=katie23;3760220] The land (plus house) that Davis owns are in both his & her names. Since his wife is a Filipina, she can own land and the authorities probably weren't too strict on his name being in the land title too.

Yep. That's about it. I never asked for my name to be on the title - didn't care. Just noticed a few years ago it was on it.

Originally Posted by Dillinger

If you went to Merka as a tourist do you also think that you should be treated like tourists in your home country and be able to bribe your way past corrupt officials and go around kidnapping?

HUH???????