Philippines to clean up island paradise as tourism pauses amid Omicron scare

The beaches in island of Boracay have never been cleaner in past three decades and the water never clearer.

President Rodrigo Duterte had even closed it in 2018, calling it a “sewer pool”.

However, now the Philippines is going to clean the island as it is largely shut off from the outside world due to the coronavirus and with domestic tourism tightly managed.

2 million people came in 2019 which bring $1 billion in revenue, and a return of garbage pile-ups, rampant land encroachment and thick fumes from constant traffic along its narrow, clogged roads.

But Duterte’s six-month closure of the island had done little to fix Boracay’s problems due to no arrival of tourists amid Covid-19.