{"id":20812,"date":"2021-07-29T16:38:38","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T16:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=20812"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:06:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:06:44","slug":"manila-extends-restrictions-until-august-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/manila-extends-restrictions-until-august-15","title":{"rendered":"Manila extends restrictions until August 15"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Authorities have announced that general community quarantine (GCQ) in Manila will be extended until August 15 due to a rise in cases of the delta variant of Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- As<strong>\u00a0the delta variant of Covid-19 spreads\u00a0<\/strong>in The Philippines, Manila\u2019s city government has decided to extend the current general community quarantine (GCQ)\u00a0<strong>until August 15<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/manila-to-remain-under-general-community-quarantine-until-july-31\">Countermeasures<\/a>\u00a0were supposed to end on July 31, but authorities called an emergency meeting to discuss mitigation strategies against the spread of the variant, coordinating with<strong>\u00a0hospitals and the city\u2019s Health Department<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only <strong>those between 18-65 years of age<\/strong>\u00a0are allowed to leave their place of residence, and only selected businesses are permitted to open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ministry of Health has&nbsp;<strong>reported 7,024 new Covid-19 cases<\/strong>&nbsp;in the country during the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Manila is under GCQ with heightened restrictions,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sp-expects-philippines-economy-to-rebound-in-2022\">casinos<\/a>\u00a0<strong>were allowed to resume operating\u00a0<\/strong>at a reduced capacity in May. However, Okada Manila&#8217;s casino is currently closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/okada-manila-launches-covid-19-vaccination-plan-for-employees\">The casino operator<\/a>\u00a0has recently announced the launch of a free programme to vaccinate all<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>of its staff against Covid-19\u00a0<strong>by the fourth quarter of 2021<\/strong>. The company will work in partnership with AC Health to vaccinate\u00a0<strong>more than 5,700 team members<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Byron Yip<\/strong>, Okada Manila\u2019s president, said: \u201cHaving our team members and their loved ones vaccinated won\u2019t just keep them safer from the threat of Covid-19,<strong>&nbsp;this will also give them some peace of mind&nbsp;<\/strong>during this unprecedented and unpredictable time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for <strong>City of Dreams Manila<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Solaire&#8217;s casino<\/strong>, the first is open by invitation only while the second is open to members only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>POGOs tax to be approved with minor changes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The bill under which&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-pogos-tax-to-be-approved-with-minor-changes\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO)<\/a>&nbsp;must pay<strong>&nbsp;5 per cent tax on their gross gaming revenue&nbsp;<\/strong>looks set to be approved with minor changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Department of Finance, one of the changes will&nbsp;<strong>require all foreign POGO employees to have a tax identification number<\/strong>. The other change prevents the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport from issuing new POGO licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the new bill, those licences that are currently registered will be under the purview of PAGCOR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bill states that POGOs will have to pay 5 per cent on gross gaming revenue.&nbsp;<strong>Foreigners employed in online casinos and their service providers must pay 25 per cent income tax<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities have announced that general community quarantine (GCQ) in Manila will be extended until August 15 due to a rise in cases of the delta variant of Covid-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Manila's General Community Quarantine (GCQ) is extended until August 15 due to rising Delta variant cases, impacting land-based casino operations with varying restrictions for Okada Manila, City of Dreams Manila, and Solaire. Concurrently, a bill imposing a 5% Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) tax on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and a 25% income tax on foreign employees is poised for approval, centralizing POGO licensing under PAGCOR and preventing new licenses from the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone.","focusai_entities":"Okada Manila, AC Health, Byron Yip, City of Dreams Manila, Solaire, PAGCOR, Department of Finance, Ministry of Health, Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport","focusai_location":"Manila, The Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.95), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.75), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Tax Impact?","query":"How will the 5% GGR tax and 25% foreign employee income tax impact the profitability and operational viability of existing POGOs, particularly given the shift in licensing authority to PAGCOR?"},{"label":"Casino Recovery Timeline?","query":"What is the projected timeline for the full operational recovery of integrated resorts in Manila, considering the persistent GCQ extensions and varying access restrictions, and how will this affect their Q3\/Q4 GGR?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[23876,16333],"tags":[23907],"class_list":["post-20812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20812","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=20812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20853,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20812\/revisions\/20853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}