Duterte wants closure of

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is mulling to bar tourists from visiting famous beach destination Boracay, which he described as “cesspool.”

Duterte made the pronouncement in a speech delivered during the Manila Times’business forum held in Davao City late night Friday, February 9.

“I will close Boracay. Boracay is a cesspool,” the President said. “There will be a time that no more foreigner will go there because he will have — when he goes back to the plane to where he belongs, he will be full of s*** going back and forth to the restroom.”

Duterte was piqued by the perennial environmental concerns plaguing the popular island.

He said he could not stand the fact that Boracay, once in a pristine condition, is becoming polluted because of negligence to protect the famed beach getaway island.

“During days when I was there, garbage was just 20 meters away from the beach. At a distance, you see cotton balls of Boracay, [ which] is a white sand,” Duterte said.

“But you go into the water, it’s smelly. Smell of what? S***, Because everything that goes out in Boracay… it’s destroying the environment or the Republic of the Philippines and creating a disaster coming,” he added.

There have been persistent demands to address environmental issues in Boracay as the