Panelo: Duterte ‘very pleased’ with Boracay rehab

Six months after calling it a cesspool, President Rodrigo Duterte is now very pleased with the rehabilitation of Boracay, Malacañang said Friday.

“He’s (Duterte) very pleased with what has happened in Boracay,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said during the ceremonial reopening of the world-famous resort island at the Cagban Port.

Panelo stressed that the rehabilitation of Boracay is a “lesson of political will and cooperation of the people.”

“It has to take a President Duterte to put things in order and we should all learn from all these lessons so that Boracay will become the attraction not only in this country but in the world,” he said.

Panelo also said that “the President has commended the secretaries (of the concerned departments) for the evolution and development” of Boracay.

Duterte ordered the island closed and placed under rehabilitation after calling it a “cesspool” because of its poor sewerage system.

He also that part of the island will be placed under the government’s land reform program to be distributed to the island’s resident Indigenous Peoples.