2018 Boracay closure and redevelopment for media coverage. On April 4, 2018, the Philippine government announced that Boracay would be closed for up to six months starting on April 26. Checkpoints manned by police officers and soldiers would be set up at piers in Boracay to turn away visitors from the island. Passes would be given to local residents. On the day of the closure, President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of calamity over the three barangays of Boracay. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has distributed relief goods to residents of Boracay while the island is closed to tourists. In June 2018,
Boracay installed to remedy the insufficient sewage and septic conditions in the island, environmental concerns regarding coliform bacteria persisted due to noncompliance of some business establishments in the island. In 2004, only 51 percent of hotels and restaurants in Boracay and 25 percent of all households were connected to the island's central sewage system. In 2005, Boracay was declared a "special tourism zone". In April 2006, Arroyo gave the PTA administrative control over Boracay, to be exercised in coordination with the provincial government. In 2009, Boracay Island Water Co. (BIWC), won a contract to improve the supply of potable water and