Alvarez defends Boracay casino project from green groups, church attacks

NO LITTERING A foreign tourist helps pick up trash at a section of a beach on Boracay Island. —LYN RILLON

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he saw nothing irregular about the government allowing the development of casinos on Boracay Island, amid protests raised by environmentalists and the church.

“There’s no problem. It’s a tourist zone … If there are casinos here in Metro Manila, why should they be banned anywhere else?” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Environmentalists are up in arms over the government’s plans to allow casino operations on the island in Aklan province, amid the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ crackdown on violators of environmental laws in Boracay, one of the country’s leading tourist drawers.

‘Hypocrisy, duplicity’

“It smacks of hypocrisy, if not duplicity, to sensationalize the crackdown of tourism establishments aggravating ecological carrying capacities on one hand, then allow large-scale entertainment facilities on the other,” the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment said in a statement on Wednesday.

Macau-based casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. and its local partner, AB Leisure Exponent Inc., are building a $500-million integrated casino resort in Boracay. AB Leisure is a unit of Leisure and Resorts World Corp.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) has confirmed it would sign a contract within the week for the grant of a provisional license to the gaming firms.

Alvarez dismissed criticisms, saying he did not see a disconnect in the government’s actions.

“The issue is not the casino but the hotels and resorts that violate sanitation laws and which just throw garbage everywhere,” the Speaker said. “You only need to regulate that and you only need to follow that. There won’t be a problem, I think.”

Alvarez added that the House of Representatives was in the process of legislating a new measure giving Congress the sole authority to issue licenses for gaming companies.

He said Pagcor and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office should only serve as regulatory bodies without franchise-granting powers.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who described Boracay as a “cesspool,” had ordered the DENR to go after environmental violators and warned that he would order the entire island “shut down” if its problems would not be addressed.

Moratorium

Kalikasan called on the government to enforce a moratorium on new tourism construction projects and the issuance of business permits, especially in critical ecosystems.

The Catholic Church in Aklan province also joined opposition to casino projects in Boracay.

“Putting up a casino is not cleaning up Boracay and [this] may even be [considered] ‘dirtier’ than the other problems,” Kalibo Bishop Jose Corazon Tala-oc told the Inquirer in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

“We have been consistently opposing any move to put up a casino and we will continue to oppose it,” he said.

Tala-oc said casino operations would “destroy the moral fiber” of families and could result in picking up other vices, like illegal drugs.

The bishop said he would try to convince local officials and the Pagcor to reject the project, adding that gambling could not replace hard work and the dignity of labor. —REPORTS FROM DJ YAP, JAYMEE T. GAMIL, NESTOR P. BURGOS JR. AND LEO UDTOHAN