April 05, 2018

Duterte gives greenlight for Boracay closure on April 26

Scrap your plans for Boracay ASAP as the island will be closed off to tourists starting April 26, 2018.

NO BORACAY FOR 6 MONTHS. Pres. Rodrigo Duterte just ordered the island be closed to tourists for 6 months and be placed under a state of calamity to fast-track its rehabilitation./PRIMER FILE PHOTO

A tweet by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque and subsequent reports from various news media confirmed that President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the proposal presented by the environment, interior and local government, and tourism departments during the 24th cabinet meeting held last night, April 4.

Bora closed for 6 mos effective 26 April

— Harry Roque (@attyharryroque) April 4, 2018

The island will likewise be placed in a state of calamity to activate calamity funds, which will be used to “tide affected workers over,” according to Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra.

Recent reports have also stated that the government, particularly the labor and social welfare departments, plans to employ some 17,000 displaced workers to help with the clean-up and rehabilitation of the island. Other workers will be given conditional cash transfers taken from the calamity funds.

Military special forces will also be deployed to help secure the island.

Flight cancellations

With thousands of tourists flying into the island through Aklan’s Kalibo and Caticlan airports, flight cancellations due to the closure were inevitable.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) will be scaling down its operations for these airports and expanding its operations to other destinations from late April onwards.

In a statement, PAL said they will bring down their previous 28 flights weekly between Manila and Caticlan down to 9 from April 20 to October 27, while the 40 weekly flights between Manila and Kalibo will go down to 7 staring April 26. Flights to Caticlan from Cebu and Clark will likewise be suspended from April 26 to October 27.

“Passengers of the affected Kalibo and Caticlan flights have the option to rebook, reroute, or refund with penalties and charges waived. Rerouting options cover both domestic and international routes,” PAL said in the statement.

Affected PAL passengers may call the PAL hotline at 855-8888, logon to www.philippineairlines.com, or visit their nearest PAL ticketing office or partner travel agent for rebooking, rerouting, and refund of their tickets.

Cebu Pacific has likewise suspended several flights into and out of Caticlan and Kalibo from April 26 to October 25.

They also advised affected passengers to manage rebooking and refunds through the “Manage Booking” section of their website, www.cebupacificair.com. The airline has given the following options to passengers affected by these suspensions:

Get a full refund
Place the full value of the ticket in a travel fund for future use
Rebook the flight, subject to seat availability
Reroute to any domestic destination, subject to seat availability

Any immediate concerns with Cebu Pacific flights may be coursed through their Facebook page (Cebu Pacific Air) or Twitter accounts (@CebuPacificAir). You can also try and call their hotline at 02-702-0888, though they advise against it due to the large volume of calls.

Source: Philippine Star, Inquirer.net, Rappler, ABS-CBN News, GMA News