{"id":159376,"date":"2018-04-09T06:45:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T10:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=159376"},"modified":"2018-04-09T06:45:53","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T10:45:53","slug":"duterte-says-no-to-casinos-yes-to-clean-up-in-boracay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/09\/duterte-says-no-to-casinos-yes-to-clean-up-in-boracay\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte says no to casinos, yes to clean-up in Boracay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, TOTO LOZANO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The President\u00a0stressed on Monday, April 9, that his order was to clean-up Boracay and not to allow the building of casinos there.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless there is a law or a proclamation of the President setting aside anything there, any inch of land maybe, then that for all those people to come in. In the meantime, there\u2019s no plan. My order was to clean it up,\u201d President Rodrigo Roa Duterte said in a press conference in Davao before his flight to China.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaster plan? Wala akong<\/em> master plan d\u2019yan, linisin ko muna \u2018yan kasi<\/em> agricultural \u2018yan<\/em> (I do not have a master plan there, I just ordered to clean it up because that is agricultural),\u201d the President added.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier ordered the closure of the paradise island to give way to its cleaning because of its sewerage and environmental problems. Apart from the tourism industry, other industries like hotel and restaurant services and other businesses will suffer from the tourist destination\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n

Last March, the government\u2019s gaming regulator confirmed that it granted Macau casino giant Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. a provisional license to build a casino in a 23-hectare-land in Boracay. Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) even defended that this casino project has no relation to the administration\u2019s call for Boracay\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n

(Read: PAGCOR says license to Galaxy not connected with Boracay closure<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cI see no relationship in that because, again, it\u2019s on the other side\u2026 of the area that was closed by the government,\u201d PAGCOR chief Andrea Domingo said.<\/p>\n

However, it looks like Duterte has a different plan.<\/p>\n

“Walang plano diyang<\/em> casino-casino. Tama na iyan kasi sobra na. May <\/em>casino dito<\/em>, casino doon <\/em>(There are no plans of casinos. That is too much. There are casinos everywhere),” the President said in the press conference.<\/p>\n

He also insisted that Boracay should be considered as a land reform area.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo maybe after that [clean up], I\u2019ll give the farmers\u2026 i<\/em>-land reform ko na \u2018yan <\/em>(I will land reform it). I tell you now i<\/em>-land reform ko lahat \u2018yan<\/em> (I will land reform it) then I\u2019ll give it to the farmers,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Duterte then\u00a0asserted that the government owns the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cSasabihin ninyo<\/em> (You may ask), how about the business there? I\u2019m sorry but that is the law. The law syas that it is a forest land, agricultural. Why would I deviate from that? Do I have a good reason to do that?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI never said building anything or even a nipa hut there. What I said is that [the] island itself was owned by the government. I\u2019ve said it before, (that is) agricultural \u2018yan, pati <\/em>(also) forestal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President\u00a0stressed on Monday, April 9, that his order was to clean-up Boracay and not to allow the building of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":158331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[2747,322,49474,2444],"class_list":["post-159376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-boracay","tag-casino","tag-galaxy-entertainment","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}