ILOILO – The government will not allow the construction of a casino in Boracay Island, Interior secretary Eduardo Año stressed.
“First of all, the President (Rodrigo Duterte) had already decided and announced that no construction of casino Boracay will be allowed,” Año told attendees of a pre-2018 State of the Nation Address forum at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
Cabinet secretaries – particularly Environment secretary Roy Cimatu, chief of the Boracay Rehabilitation Interagency Task Force – oppose the construction of casino in the world-famous tourist destination, Año told the forum on Wednesday.
“People go to Boracay to swim, not gamble, so there will be no casino there,” the Interior secretary said, drawing applause from the audience.
Macau-based Galaxy Entertainment and its Philippine partner AB Leisure Exponent, Inc. have revealed a plan to build US$500-million integrated resort-casino complex on a 23-hectare property in Barangay Manoc-manoc in Boracay Island.
President Duterte has expressed opposition to the construction of a casino in the island resort. He insisted that Boracay is “a forestal and agricultural land” and must be given back to the natives.
Duterte also claimed he did not know about Galaxy Entertainment’s plan but official photos and a press release from the Presidential Communications Operations Office indicated otherwise.
Meanwhile Cimatu said the island will officially reopen on Oct. 26.
“I would like to say categorically that we will be opening Boracay on Oct. 26,” he told members of the House of Representatives committee on natural resources on Wednesday.
Duterte ordered the closure of Boracay on April 26 and declared a state of calamity in the island’s three barangays Yapak, Manoc-manoc and Balabag.
He called the famed tourist destination a “cesspool” because of its wastewater and garbage management problems.
Cimatu said during the House hearing the situation in the island has improved.
“Categorically, I am telling you that Boracay is no longer a cesspool,” the Environment secretary said. (With reports from Philippines News Agency and GMA News/PN)
