• Philippines closes 'cesspool' homosexual tourist island of Boracay

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    (CNN)The Philippines has announced a six-month closure of the
    popular tourist destination of Boracay over concerns the
    island's famous beaches and clear blue waters have been
    transformed into a "cesspool" due to sustained environmental
    damage.

    The closure, which will begin April 26, was announced following
    a cabinet meeting Wednesday, and would be a "total closure" to
    tourists, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said. No other
    information was made available, CNN Philippines reported.

    The decision ends weeks of speculation on the fate of the
    popular tourist destination, after Philippines President Rodrigo
    Duterte complained about the state of the island in February.

    Boracay, which is around 170 miles south of the capital Manila,
    is home to as many as 17,000 people, many of whom are directly
    engaged in the tourism industry, according to CNN Philippines.

    "Calamity funds" would be activated to provide financial relief
    to those affected by the shutdown, Senior Deputy Executive
    Secretary Menardo Guevarra said, but declined to give a figure.

    Untreated effluence

    The archipelago nation of the Philippines boasts well over 7,000
    islands, and among them Boracay had come to be almost a byword
    for white-sand beach paradise.

    But with an influx of tourists that began in the 1980s the
    island has struggled to maintain its idyllic allure. Last year
    almost 1.7 million tourists, including a significant number of
    cruise line passengers, visited the island during a 10-month
    period, according to the governmental Philippines Information
    Agency,

    Among the problems caused by the island's long-running tourism
    boom is unregulated development and pipes carrying raw effluence
    directly into the sea.

    In a survey of the island's sewerage facilities, the vast
    majority -- 716 of 834 -- residential and business properties
    were found to have no discharge permit and were presumed to be
    draining waste water directly into the sea, according to a
    report by the official Philippines News Agency.

    In February Duterte directly called out the alleged
    mismanagement of the island, accusing those responsible of
    turning it into a "cesspool."

    "As long as there is shit coming out of those pipes draining to
    the sea, I will never give you the time of the day (to return)"
    to the island, said Duterte.

    Anguish

    Residents said that past pleas for help with infrastructure on
    the island had gone unheeded, and the government's reaction was
    too harsh.

    "We cried for help for all the unfinished infrastructure that
    causes all these problems," Normeth Preglo Parzhuber, a
    kiteboarding school owner on Bulabog Beach told CNN via Facebook.

    "Now we have to suffer for their mistakes."

    Others said they were waiting for more details about the planned
    closure, with a briefing expected by Secretary Roque.

    "We have yet to hear the official announcement and details of
    closure -- what will be our role as stakeholders? They said
    hotels and restaurants will not be closed but they will stop the
    tourists," said Nenette Aguirre Graf.

    Reset

    The shutdown is intended to provide an extended period to clean
    up the island and surrounding seas -- with the burden for
    connecting to the sewerage system likely to fall on business
    owners, Tourism Undersecretary Ricky Alegre told CNN.

    "We describe (Boracay) as a world class island destination with
    poor services," Alegre says.

    "And we wish to upgrade the services. We must swallow the bitter
    pill, and see this solution as one step backward and two steps
    forward. We want to continue to promote the Philippines as a
    beautiful destination -- and want to add that our destinations
    are environmentally compliant."

    However, the local sentiment had been "clean (but) not close,"
    according to one resident, Civi Civitarese.

    An unnamed member of the anti-closure Boracay United group said
    that the island's residents could work to we can rehabilitate,
    restore and rebuild what was lost and preserve our national
    treasure" without the need for an extended and costly closure,
    through "sustainable environmental solutions."

    Closing the island to tourism would "severely devastate the
    lives of over 19,000 workers that will lose everything, while
    crippling not only Boracay's micro, small and medium
    enterprises, but the entire country's tourism and reputation
    across the globe for a very long time," the member, quoted in
    Boracay United's press release, said.

    In February, over 50 hotels and restaurants were given notices
    after failing to comply with the country's water treatment laws,
    CNN Philippines reported.

    The island, which regularly features on lists of the world's
    best beaches also plays host to thousands of cruise ship
    tourists and crew.

    Prior to the announcement to shutter the resort island, the
    Department of Tourism said that as many as 18 ocean liners,
    carrying more than 50,000 passengers and around half that number
    of crew members, were due to visit the island in 2018.

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