Manila: The Philippines is set to deploy hundreds of riot police to top holiday island Boracay to keep travellers out and head off potential protests ahead of its six-month closure to tourists, the government said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has branded the tiny central island and its world-famous white-sand beach a “cesspool”. He has ordered visitors be kept away from April 26, so facilities to treat raw sewage can be set up and illegal structures torn down.

Yesterday, authorities laid out a lockdown plan to keep out all foreign and Filipino tourists using more than 600 police, including a 138-member “crowd dispersal unit”.

Boracay residents will be obliged to carry new identification cards and will be banned from boating and night swimming, he said.

Entry to the 1,000ha island south of Manila will be limited to a single small sea port.

Residents’ new identity cards are expected to be distributed three days before the shutdown, and security forces will conduct a “capability demonstration” next week, Chief Superintendent Cesar Binag said at a public forum. — AFP