Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque urged the Boracay inter-agency task force on Monday to ease restrictions on media coverage of the resort island and proposed the creation of a Boracay press corps.
He said this will give members of the media passes that will entitle them to the same privileges as residents.
“In the Cabinet meeting, I personally appealed to the inter-agency to reconsider the 9 to 5 rule applied to members of the media to cover,” he said during a Palace press briefing on Monday.
The inter-agency task force, composed of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the Department of Tourism (DoT), said earlier that the media would only be allowed to stay on the island only from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. They will be required to go back to the mainland in Malay town by end of day.
Roque believes he has convinced the task force to allow the creation of the press corps.
“But let’s await the final word from the inter-agency. I do not want to preempt them. But my impression was they were in agreement before I left the meeting,” he added.
Boracay will be closed to tourists starting April 26 after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered its rehabilitation for six months. He had earlier tagged the world-renowned resort island as “cesspool.” /ee