Boracay Island is reopening today after several months of rehabilitation. But there are some things one must be mindful of before heading for one of the top tourist destinations in the country.

One is that the island may not be able to accommodate a lot of people than it used to. In September, President Rodrigo Duterte, during a visit in Cebu, stressed the importance of limiting Boracay’s carrying capacity.

“Not all Filipinos and all tourists can go to Boracay. It cannot accommodate everyone,” the President was quoted as saying in a report by the Philippine News Agency (PNA), the official news outlet of the government.

“If it’s a house, it would be similar to having just one comfort room for a thousand people.”

It was earlier reported by various news outlets that the carrying capacity of Boracay would be limited to 19,215 people a day and 6,405 tourists a day.

In another PNA report published last month, it was noted that the number of visitors entering Boracay would be strictly monitored so that it would not exceed the proposed carrying capacity of the island.

“We have to enforce the carrying capacity because if we don’t, Boracay will return to what it was before. We want it to be sustainable and to be always open,” Bernadette Puyat, Secretary of the Department of Tourism (DoT), was quoted as saying in the aforementioned report, adding that several airlines had agreed to “only one flight a day.”

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has advised those who would liketo visit the island to avoid making reservations in establishments without clearance to operate from the government.

Establishments that will be caught operating without said clearance will be shuttered, according to Roy Cimatu, DENR Secretary.

“We will be monitoring a lot of things, from managing the entrance, exit, and stay of the tourists, to enforcing rule of law on establishments that have been found to be noncompliant to laws and regulations,” he said. “We will not hesitate to close hotels and other establishments that would operate without clearance from the BIATF (Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force).”

Early this October, DENR made known that it had already issued Certificates of Conditional Approval or CCAs to 159 establishments in Boracay. These establishments had to go to the Department of Interior and Local Government for the assessment of their permits and then to DoT for final accreditation and clearance.

One reason why Boracay Island was closed for rehabilitation starting last April was that several business establishments were found to be violating environmental laws by, among other things, dumping untreated waste water into the sea and erecting structures on protected areas.

And another thing visitors must know: The rehabilitation of the island is far from over. “While much has been gained already, still a lot remains to be done and we still ask for your extended patience, support, and understanding,” Mr. Cimatu said last week, adding that all projects will continue past Boracay’s soft opening today.

He noted that the interagency taskforce he was heading “lost about 30 to 40 days of work” because of the typhoons that had afflicted the country in recent months.

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