Boracay, the beautiful island resort in the Philippines that your wanderlust friends can't stop Instagramming, has been labelled a "cesspool".

But this wasn't a tirade by some random hater.

It was assessment from President Rodrigo Duterte himself.

Something stinks

Duterte was speaking at the 7th Business Forum of the Manila Times on Feb. 9.

He covered a range of topics, including the ongoing military operations against the insurgency in Marawi City.

But he raised the most number of eyebrows when he spoke of the pollution problem in Boracay.

The president said:

"I will close Boracay. Boracay is a cesspool."

But he didn't stop there.

"At a distance you see (Boracay's white sand). But you go into the water, it's smelly. Smell of what? S**t.

There will be a time that no more foreigner will go there because he will have -- when he goes back to the plane to where he belongs, he will be full of s*** going back and forth to the restroom."

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Clean it up

Boracay is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Philippines.

It attracts more than two million tourists and brings in more than US$1.12 billion in revenue every year.

But according to Tourism Department spokesman Ricky Alegre, some establishments drained their sewage directly into the sea.

Of the 150 businesses recently inspected by the government, only 25 were connected to the sewage line.

Alegre said:

"There are certain areas there (where)... some establishments have illegally tapped their sewage line into the water line."

Duterte has given Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, a former Armed Forces chief, a deadline of six months to clean up the place.

On Feb. 6, Rappler reported that Duterte has "approved in principle" an executive order to create a task force, chaired by Cimatu, to tackle the pollution problems in the island.

Cimatu said:

"Therefore, I was given by the President the marching order to do something about the environmental problems in Boracay and make a report after six months."

You might want to wait for Cimatu's task force to get the job done before booking that holiday.

Top image from Pixabay