Manila: Restaurants and stores rushed to sell food and souvenir items. Tourists dipped for the last time into the blue sea. Others griped about the presence of Coast Guard vessels, Navy Seals, and police.

Boracay — its unforgettable white and talc-like beach drew two million tourists into central Philippines in 2017 — would be closed for environment rehabilitation for six months starting April 26.

“All I wanna say (about Boracay) stuck in my damn throat,” journalist and nature lover Teddy Montelibano said on his Facebook account.

In reaction to a well-guarded Boracay on the eve of its closure, lawyer Pilo Hilbay complained on Facebook: “The government acts as if they (tourists, local residents, business owners and resort workers) are the enemies.”

“We’ve been selling food at a discount before closing shop,” fast food worker Paula Padalhin told ABS-CBN, a TV network.

“Before Boracay’s closure, we cooked only six kilos of meat per day. In better times, we would cook 60 kilos of meat a day. We stopped serving expensive steaks and ribs. We just served Filipino food like sinigang (fish in sour soup); adobo (meat in vinegar and soy sauce); and sisig (sautéed pig head and liver with lemon and chili) — to finish our stock and recover losses,” Ronald Marquez, supervisor of Willy’s Rock Bar, said on TV.

“Before Boracay’s last day, beers and soft drinks were sold by volumes, if not given away, to staff members,” Marquez said.

“Boracay shirts were sold at 100 pesos (Dh7) each, from a 300-peso price tag. Tourists took home keepsakes before they said good-bye to Boracay.” Franco Dacillo of Island Souvenirs also said on TV.

“We are not saying goodbye. We are preparing for the new phase of Boracay. We are compliant, we are not worried,” Shirley Parcon, manager of Casa Pilar, told Gulf News in a phone interview. The 82-room boutique hotel on a one-hectare lot on Boracay’s Station Three — owned by former mayor Jose Yap, who served from 2010 to 2016 — would be vacant for six months.

“I’m happy. Our identification cards would allow residents to swim in Boracay while it’s totally closed to tourists,” Alina Sarvaez told Gulf News. She did not mind complaints about alleged fraud in the issuance of IDs.

“Boracay’s closure will mean loss of 1.96 billion pesos in six months. It will not affect the country’s GDP,” socio-economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said to allay fears.

But One Boracay, a group of stakeholders, calculated that 56 billion pesos in tourism revenues would be lost due to the tourist ban.

The government has released 2 billion pesos for salaries of 19,000 displaced resort workers, who will be hired to dismantle structures built on creeks, forest, watersheds and wetland areas, near and over the beach. “They will help solve Boracay’s two problems: flooding and environment degradation,” said Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu,

In February, Cimatu discussed with the Ayala Group, owner of Manila Water Company and its subsidiary, the Boracay Island Water Company, Inc. (a water concessionaire), to expand the latter’s waste water treatment services and solve Boracay’s problematic sewage system.

“Some 300 out of 800 establishments in Boracay were found dumping untreated waste water directly into the sea or canals. They were advised to connect to BIWC’s sewage treatment plant or construct their own wastewater treatment facilities,” said Cimatu, adding his department’s Pollution Adjudication Board will slap penalties to non-compliant companies. He did not reveal the government’s total outlay for the rehabilitation of Boracay’s bad sewage system.

On March 5, Duterte approved Boracay’s total closure, after calling it a cesspool in February. He announced transforming Boracay’s 1,000 hectares into land reform area; and rejected plans of Macau-based Galaxy Entertainment and its Filipino partner, Leisure and Resorts World Corp (LRWC), to build a $ 500-million casino-resort in Boracay.

In 2017, TripAdvisor ranked Boracay one of the world’s top 25. In 2012, Travel and Leisure magazine declared Boracay the world’s best beach island. Conde Nast Traveler has consistently praised Boracay.