The House of Representatives has recently approved the creation of the Boracay Island Development Authority, which may allow casinos on the Philippine island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Philippines.- The possibility of casino gaming on Boracay island\u00a0<\/strong>has resurfaced after the House of Representatives approved the creation of the\u00a0Boracay Island Development Authority<\/strong>\u00a0as a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the bill, was\u00a0highly criticised by government agencies<\/strong>, local government units, stakeholders and some congressmen who want to protect the island\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A \u201cNo to Bida as GOCC\u201d<\/strong> movement has been campaigning against the move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Business Mirror,\u00a0Natividad Bernardino<\/strong>, chairman of the Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group, said: \u201cThe problem of Boracay is one of over-tourism and overdevelopment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n “What we need in terms of sustaining the rehabilitation and ecological sustainability of the island is a regulatory body instead of a GOCC<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said the island has already exceeded its carrying capacity\u00a0<\/strong>for the environment and population, and that there is no more space for further investment and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019,\u00a0Leisure & Resorts World Corp.<\/a>\u00a0(LRWC) dropped its plan to build a casino on its 23-hectare property in Boracay after the company stopped working with\u00a0Galaxy Entertainment<\/a>\u00a0on the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The project had been announced in December 2017, when\u00a0LRWC bought the parcels of land in Boracay <\/strong>for US$500m to develop a resort.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, soon after the purchase,\u00a0Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte closed the island destination to tourism\u00a0<\/strong>out of concerns for the environment. He said that the increased number of visitors on the island was turning Boracay into a \u201ccesspool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The House of Representatives has recently approved the creation of the Boracay Island Development Authority, which may allow casinos on the Philippine island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":19766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Philippine House of Representatives has approved the creation of the Boracay Island Development Authority (BIDA) as a government-owned and controlled corporation, potentially reopening the door for casino development on Boracay. This move faces significant opposition from environmental groups and local stakeholders who argue the island is already beyond its ecological carrying capacity and requires a regulatory body, not a development-focused GOCC.","focusai_entities":"House of Representatives, Boracay Island Development Authority, Natividad Bernardino, Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group, Leisure & Resorts World Corp., Galaxy Entertainment, Rodrigo Duterte","focusai_location":"Philippines, Boracay Island","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"BIDA's Regulatory Powers?","query":"What specific regulatory powers, particularly concerning gaming licensing and environmental compliance, would the Boracay Island Development Authority (BIDA) possess as a GOCC, and how would these differ from a purely regulatory body?"},{"label":"Investment Outlook?","query":"Given the historical project abandonment and current environmental opposition, what is the revised investment outlook for integrated resort developers considering Boracay, and what governance frameworks would mitigate perceived risks?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,158,16333],"tags":[23632,23907],"class_list":["post-19752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-integrated-resorts","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19752"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19778,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19752\/revisions\/19778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}