ONE OF President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature decisions that earned him more respect and adoration from the vast majority of the people (including myself) was when he temporarily closed the country’s most famous tourist island resort, Boracay — a move that was unprecedented in more ways than imagined. Boracay was an income generating avenue for the government, and this move to rehabilitate an island that our president made notorious when he called it a “cesspool” was one of the gutsiest choices ever made by a leader.

So on April 26, 2018, Boracay island was shut to non-residents and started an ambitious six-month-long rehabilitation. The revenue loss was estimated to be between P15-30 billion, with hundreds of establishments shut down because of environmental violations and thousands of jobs lost in the process. The island was reopened to tourists on Oct. 26 last year, with several new regulations imposed, including limiting the number of tourists, checking for confirmed hotel bookings (no more backpackers sleeping on the beaches), no more fire eaters, fire dancers, masseuses, vendors, and, of course, no more drinking of alcohol beverages within five meters of the beach areas, riverbanks and public parks.

THEN AND NOW
I have been going to Boracay since 1998. Two decades ago, it was really like paradise on earth, with a certain charm and allure that even seemed magical. This was not the case when I returned to the island earlier this decade, prior to the rehabilitation. Not only was Boracay losing its shoreline and much of its cleanliness because of vast commercialization and uncontrolled tourism overflow, but it had lost the previous enchanting and diverse demographics of the people — both residents and tourists that used to occupy the island.

Gone were the days where a small Italian restaurant owner would cook authentic pasta meals for you, or a French restaurateur would serve you genuine crème brulee. Instead Station 1 and Station 2 are now hubs for big chains like Jollibee, McDonald’s, KFC, Shakey’s, Yellow Cab, Starbucks, 7-11, etc. — so no more unique food and beverage experience.

Gone were the days, too, when you’d see more Caucasians from Europe and North America. Instead, we see mostly mainland Chinese and Koreans. They seemed to even outnumber Filipino tourists. Chinese and Korean restaurants dominate the scene outside of the big chains. Most establishments — from hotels to restaurants — have both Chinese and Korean translation on their menu as an obvious indication of the times.

THE NEW BAR SCENE
OM, Nigi Nigi Nu Noos Bar, Summer Place, Epic Club, and Paraw Club were some of the most happening drinking sanctuaries in Boracay before the shutdown and rehabilitation, but when I was there just last week, even on a Saturday, none of these places were full. Before the rehabilitation, these bars were all jampacked and standing room only. Granted that there was inclement weather last week, still, every single flight to Caticlan, other than a few that got delayed, from Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific to AirAsia, were fully booked. I had a chance to see each and every one of the bars I listed above when I was strolling from Station 1 to Station 2 at night.

My chitchats with the waiters and security guards of these establishments revealed that the bar business in Boracay is indeed down — way below compared to the levels prior to the temporary closure. Bars are now asked to close by midnight, too, so it is no longer possible to see people drinking silly and getting wasted till the wee hours of the morning, like it was before. There are also police, both on foot and in patrol vehicles, monitoring the bars at the stations.

Even the wine shops on the island have experienced lower sales after the island was reopened to tourists. While wine shops are not directly affected by the curfew on bars, the shop keepers say that it is the kind of tourists they have now who are not buying as much as the ones before. Caucasians are known to be bigger alcohol consumers generally than Asians. Even the quality of alcohol is down. Local spirits are selling much more than imported spirits. When it comes to wines, expensive wines priced above P1,000 per bottle are almost non-existent now. People buy wines at P500 per bottle and below only.

Locals however tell me that there is a way around the midnight curfew on drinking. The easiest is obviously to buy from 7-11 or Budget Mart and bring the alcohol back to your hotel rooms to get further inebriated, or buy beers at the 24-hour convenience stores and drink inside the store. Some locals even suggested that sari-sari stores will welcome drinking after midnight — but this offer is only good for Filipino tourists. In both cases (convenience stores and sari-sari stores) only beers are allowed past midnight, not wine nor spirits. Alcohol consumption in general is way down because of the curfew, the restricted number of the incoming tourists, the “no drinking in beach” policy, and the absence of the Caucasian tourists.

ROADS NEED TO IMPROVE
While the beach front has indeed shown much improvement, with trash rarely seen, and people more disciplined with their personal garbage disposal, the roads are, however, still pretty bad.

The main road, the Boracay Highway Central, has long stretches where it is barely passable even on one lane. I also did not get to see ongoing construction work during my four-day visit, and this should not happen even if it was raining. Instead I saw a bulldozer, an excavator, and a couple of dump trucks just taking road space. If you stay in Station 2, you may not get to see the bad roads, but if you stay in Station 1 and further to the north in hotels like Alta Vista, Movenpick, Crimson, and the like, the ride to the main commercial hub will be very rocky and wobbly every time. It is such a huge eyesore for the island so the DPWH better get the roads done with no further delay.

I have to admit that Boracay is not as appealing to me as it was before, even after the reopening. However, I am still 100% in agreement with our president on his decision to stop the cancer within Boracay, and rehabilitate it despite the economic and perhaps even political implication of such a tough but wise decision. Now that Boracay is once more open to tourists, the rehabilitation should continue, the discipline and new regulations should be followed, and the roads should all be fixed as planned. There is no turning back now, even if it means me drinking less alcohol when I am in Boracay.

The author is a member of UK-based Circle of Wine Writers. For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, and other wine-related concerns, e-mail the author at protegeinc@yahoo.com. He is also on Twitter at twitter.com/sherwinlao.