BY GLENDA TAYONA and PRINCE GOLEZ
ILOILO City – On the eve of Boracay’s shutdown, the Supreme Court has been asked to stop President Rodrigo Duterte from closing the island.
In a 29-page petition for prohibition and mandamus, three private citizens urged the high court to issue a temporary restraining order.
If Boracay’s closure pushes through despite the filing of the pleading, the petitioners prayed for a status quo ante order.
The government intends to close the island for a six-month rehabilitation beginning today.
The petitioners were Mark Anthony Zabal who earns a living by making sandcastles for tourists on the beaches of Boracay; Thiting Jacosalem who works as a driver for tourists and workers on the island; and Odon Bandiola, a resident of Nabas, Aklan who travels to Boracay for business and pleasure.
Assisted by the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) Panay chapter, they warned the closure of Boracay would have far-reaching adverse consequences for all persons living and working in the island.
The Supreme Court is in recess but a source told Panay News the justices may still be able to tackle the petition.
Atty. Rene Estocapio, president of NUPL-Panay, said the petition challenges the constitutionality of the President’s decision to close Boracay as a way of addressing the need to clean-up the island.
There is no provision in the 1987 Constitution that allows the President to close the island and ban tourists and non-residents, said Estocapio.
The President’s order also derogates the people’s right to travel, he added.
The other points the petitioners raised were:
* closing Boracay to tourists and non-residents is a violation of the right to due process of persons earning a living in the island and deprives them of their livelihood
* imposing restrictions upon persons visiting Boracay or depriving persons earning a living therein, even though they have not been found guilty of violating environmental laws, is arbitrary, whimsical, an unreasonable intrusion into individual rights
Other respondents named in the petition were Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Department of Interior and Local Government officer-in-charge Eduardo Año.
The President said Boracay must be rehabilitated and called out irresponsible businesses there for the island’s degradation.
But the petitioners argued that a closure is unconstitutional as it restricts the movement of people within the country in violation of their right to travel under Article III, Section 6 of the Constitution.
“In this case, the grounds for the restriction (of right to travel) have not been shown to exist. There is no national security, public safety, or public health situation calling for the curtailment of the right to travel,” the petition read.
PALACE UNFAZED
Unless a temporary restraining order is issued, the closure of Boracay would proceed, said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.
“We see absolutely no merit for any private party to restrain the closure of Boracay to tourists given that the Supreme Court itself previously ruled that Boracay is owned primarily by the state,” he stressed.
Duterte recently warned the courts not to interfere in the planned Boracay closure by issuing temporary restraining orders “because you would just exacerbate the situation.”
“We see no reason how private persons can allege and prove irreparable injuries, a prerequisite for a TRO, given that their stay in the island is by mere tolerance of the State,” said Roque.
He also invoked “the inherent police power of the State to protect the environment in Boracay.”
The President had compared the famous holiday destination to a “cesspool” due to environmental degradation worsened by the dumped sewage into the sea.
Roque said the government has allotted P2 billion not only for the rehabilitation works (repair of sewage line, drainage system and central water treatment, among others) but for ordinary workers affected by Boracay’s closure.
“What have been agreed upon is zero discharge, no water should be released into the sea, it will be recycled,” said Roque.
The master plan for the six-month rehabilitation also includes the removal of structures on the wetlands and forestlands, he added./PN
