The 2018 Boracay Closure: Dates, Legal Basis and What Changed

Duterte signed Proclamation No. 475 on 26 April 2018. Its full title is “Declaring a State of Calamity in the Barangays of Balabag, Manoc-Manoc and Yapak (Island of Boracay) in the Municipality of Malay, Aklan, and Temporary Closure of the Island as a Tourist Destination”². The operative sentence, as Philstar quoted it that day, ordered “the temporary closure of the island as a tourist destination for six months starting 26 April 2018, or until 25 October 2018”¹.

The same report says agencies were told to apply remedial measures under RA 10121: price control on basic goods, negotiated procurement, and relief and rehabilitation using disaster funds. The police, the Coast Guard and the armed forces were to enforce the closure “with restraint within the bounds of the law”¹. The legal basis is therefore a proclamation of a state of calamity, not an act of Congress. As late as June 2024 the Malay mayor’s office was still citing RA 10121 and Proclamation 475 as grounds for enforcement on the beach¹⁵.

Duterte had called the island a “cesspool”, and it stayed closed to tourists from 26 April to 25 October 2018⁵. It covers 1,032 hectares⁵.

Executive Order No. 53, dated 8 May 2018, created the Boracay Inter-agency Task Force to formulate and carry out policies for rehabilitation and ecological sustainability³. The environment secretary chaired it, the interior secretary was vice chair and the tourism secretary co-vice chair; the Aklan governor and the Malay mayor were members. The order set a life of two years unless extended, and a six-month moratorium on new tourism and business facilities³.

Executive Order No. 115, dated 11 May 2020, extended the task force to 8 May 2021⁴. Its preamble gives the findings that explain why the rules stayed: residential structures exceeded the island’s physical carrying capacity by 109.95 hectares, accommodation businesses by 194.90 hectares, and the daily population by 15,836 persons. It also says 33 percent of establishments still violated the beach easement and 27 percent the road easement⁴.

On 16 June 2022 the task force turned over responsibility for finishing the rehabilitation to the Aklan provincial government and the Malay municipal government. The acting environment secretary said his department would keep monitoring, and the task force was to dissolve when Duterte’s term ended on 30 June 2022⁵. In practice the island is run by Malay (ordinances, tourism office, auxiliary police, beach guards) and Aklan (the port terminal fee and the iPass system), with national agencies in supporting roles. For the fees those two bodies charge, see Boracay fees.

Sources disagree Executive Order No. 115 extends the task force only to 8 May 2021⁴, while the Inquirer reported in 2022 that it was due to dissolve on 30 June 2022⁵. The order that covers the period in between is not among the sources used here. Treat the 2022 hand-over as the end point, because it is the later and better-reported date.

The reopening guidelines, as described by the Inquirer on 29 September 2018, were⁶:

• Tables, chairs and massage beds banned from the main beach, Puka, Ilig-iligan and Bulabog.
• Souvenir stalls banned from the beachfront.
• Pigs, poultry and pets not allowed in beach areas.
• No smoking in public areas.
• No beachfront parties except under a special-event permit.
• Casinos and online gambling not allowed, as a DENR undersecretary said (see casinos in Boracay for what happened to that line).

The environment department clarified on 21 October 2018 that parties and grilling stay allowed indoors or away from the beach, and that a circulating infographic claiming a grilling ban was false. Water sports were suspended pending a marine assessment⁸. The same department official said structures and activities were banned “at all times within the 25+5 easement area”, a no-build zone, and within the beach vegetation area⁸.

Only accredited establishments that met the interior and environment departments’ requirements could open under a “no compliance, no opening” policy⁷. The first soft opening had 2,063 rooms and 25 establishments ready⁶; by early November 2018, 157 hotels and resorts were allowed to open⁹.

Enforcement started unevenly. On 30 October 2018 the Inquirer reported enforcers “confused” about the rules, sandcastle makers charging PHP 20 per photo and vendors still on the sand¹⁰. In February 2019 the interior secretary said many establishments still broke the easement rule and that a final ultimatum plus 15 days would precede forced demolition¹¹.

A study by the University of the Philippines Los Baños and the environment department, reported at the reopening, set the limits at 19,215 tourists on the island at any given time and 6,405 tourist arrivals a day. Before the closure the island held 70,781 people a day, tourists included⁶. Philstar quoted the tourism secretary as limiting capacity to “19,215 persons a day”⁷.

Sources disagree The Inquirer says 19,215 tourists “at any given time”⁶; Philstar’s quote says “persons a day”⁷. Read it as 19,215 on the island at one time and about 6,400 arrivals a day, the Inquirer’s wording, which also fits the arrivals figure.

The cap had no enforcement provision. Malay’s tourism office tallies showed it was exceeded in spring 2019 and spring 2022, and a new environment department study was commissioned but unreleased as of April 2023¹³. In Holy Week 2022 the island logged 21,252 tourists on 14 April and 22,519 on 15 April¹². In March 2024 a Boracay Foundation board member put daily arrivals at 6,000 to 8,000 and said the department “has yet to establish rules” on capacity¹⁴. Roughly 2 million people visited in 2019, just over half of them foreign¹³. No newer official capacity figure appears in the sources used here, so the 2018 numbers are the last on record.

A March 2024 report quoting a business association said restrictions had eased: dusk-to-dawn beach parties were “already allowed” and fire dances were allowed in front of one named hotel, while smoking and drinking on the beach “remain disallowed”¹⁴. That is one quoted source, not an ordinance. In 2024 the municipality still treated portable folding chairs on White Beach as prohibited¹⁵. A Malay councilor told a 2023 feature he favored bringing back beach beds, and a local oversight body, the Boracay-Caticlan Sustainable Development Council, was created in March 2023 and agreed that an independent entity should run another capacity study¹³. Details of the beach-rule loosening are in smoking and drinking on the beach.