Businesses to be allowed back in Boracay after rehab —Duterte

President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said businesses will be allowed back into Boracay Island after its six-month rehabilitation, provided that locals of the area will be given full priority in terms of land reform.

"I'd like you to know that we will just delineate a certain potion there [for business] but the rest of the island will be declared a land reform area," Duterte said during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Vista Alegre Homes in Negros Occidental.

Duterte had ordered the six-month closure of Boracay Island for its rehabilitation starting April 26.

The six-month rehabilitation of the island was recommended by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Tourism, and Department of the Interior and Local Government last month after Duterte threatened to close down the island and described it as a "cesspool."

Duterte said the government will make available about P2 billion in calamity funds for locals of Boracay who would be affected by the rehabilitation.

"I'll leave it to Congress to decide a clear-cut parameter of how much would be given back to business," he said on Sunday.

"The only thing I ask is 'wag ninyo akong madaliin. Allow [Interior Secretary Eduardo] Año and [Environment Secretary Roy] Cimatu to clean the place then after that we will go away," he added.

"You do not need to go inland to build more [businesses]. Give it to the people there, to the natives, para matikman nila. He will have a piece of property under the sun. That's the idea there," Duterte said.

The Department of Agrarian Reform had said that over 40 percent of the resort island could be handed over to beneficiaries should the government decide to push through with the land reform program. —Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/ALG, GMA News