Solons’ Clark casino owes P100M, is closed

NAPOLEON DY

CLARK FREEPORT—The state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) has given a gaming firm, whose registration papers showed its stockholders included two lawmakers, until Oct. 17 to pay more than P100 million in casino gross revenue share dating back to October 2009.

The CDC imposed the deadline after it terminated on Sept. 17 its memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Community Gaming and Amusement Network Inc. (CGANI) for failure to remit the share despite several opportunities given to settle the arrears, CDC president Arthur Tugade said in an interview.

Representatives of CGANI, the firm that runs Princess Casino at Oxford Hotel here, could not be reached for comment on Monday.

SEC documents

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents filed with the CDC in 2009 showed that two of CGANI’s stockholders were Isabela Rep. Napoleon Dy and Anac-IP Rep. Jose Panganiban Jr.

But Panganiban, in a text message to the Inquirer, said he and Dy had divested from the company in 2010.

“As to the 2009 SEC registration, the list of shareholders was in April 2009 but there was a new general information sheet (GIS) after the shares [under our names] were transferred in 2010,” Panganiban said.

Pearl Sagmit, CDC corporate secretary and chief legal counsel, on Tuesday said CDC files have no record of the  new CGANI GIS that Panganiban is referring to.

“We have none on record. The latest we have [are documents dated 2009],” Sagmit said on the telephone.

Panganiban is listed as contact person in the certificate of increase of capital stock of CGANI that the SEC approved on April 27, 2009.

Shares of stock

This document showed that the board of CGANI approved the increase of the firm’s authorized capital stock from P1 million to P500 million at P1 per share.

JOSE PANGANIBAN JR. Photos by Villamor Visaya Jr./ Inquirer Northern Luzon

Dy and Panganiban subscribed P62 million worth of shares each and paid P17.4 million each, the five-page document showed.

Tugade said CGANI initially offered to pay P5 million but this was unacceptable to the CDC.

Sagmit said the CDC enforced its cease-and-desist order that stopped the operations of the casino at Oxford Hotel on Sept. 23.

Eduardo Datu, president of Oxford Hotel, confirmed that CDC had padlocked the casino.

P200-M lease

Datu said Oxford asked the CDC to evict CGANI due to CGANI’s failure to pay a lease worth more than P200 million.

The casino occupies more than 4,000 square meters of space at the hotel, he said.

Sagmit said the board of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) is prepared to consider the suspension of CGANI’s license to operate a casino following the termination of the MOA by CDC. With a report from Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon