{"id":22787,"date":"2021-09-20T13:39:51","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T16:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22787"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:31:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:31:34","slug":"boracay-casino-plans-facing-mounting-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/boracay-casino-plans-facing-mounting-criticism","title":{"rendered":"Boracay casino plans facing mounting criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Diocese of Kalibo and the Boracay Foundation Inc. (BFI) have criticised Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s suggestion of allowing gambling on Boracay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- The possibility of\u00a0allowing gambling in Boracay\u00a0<\/strong>continues\u00a0to provoke criticism from anti-gambling groups<\/a>. Now, the Catholic church’s Diocese of Kalibo and the Boracay Foundation Inc. (BFI) have joined residents against the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BFI, a non-stock, non-profit organisation that represents resorts, hotels, restaurants and other businesses in Boracay, has issued a statement saying the project should be relocated to the mainland town of Malay<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Diocese of Kalibo, through its Bishop Jose Corazon Tala-oc, said: “Boracay is God\u2019s gift to Aklan and to the world.\u00a0It has become a family destination<\/strong>, a venue for educational advancement and entrepreneurship.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bishop also called on priests in Kalibo to\u00a0form groups against the project\u00a0<\/strong>to develop a gambling hub on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte<\/a>, rekindled the possibility of allowing gambling in Boracay<\/strong>, noting that his country needs income to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duterte said: \u201cWe don\u2019t have money now. Where we can get money, I will get it. If it will be from gambling, so be it<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to The Inquirer, residents on Boracay<\/strong> believe the president should allow the development of casinos in other places<\/strong> but not in Boracay. They want authorities to focus on increasing the vaccination rate on the island to allow the return of foreign visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boracay casino could generate 10,000 jobs, PAGCOR says<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PAGCOR chairman Andrea Domingo<\/strong> has supported Duterte\u2019s suggestion of allowing gambling in Boracay<\/a>. She says the development could attract up to 3,000 foreign tourists a week and create 10,000 jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domingo also said that concerns about environmental issues were unfounded<\/strong>, citing a study. She said a company would not invest in the island \u201cjust to make garbage and destroy the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Diocese of Kalibo and the Boracay Foundation Inc. (BFI) have criticised Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s suggestion of allowing gambling on Boracay.<\/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":"Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's proposal to introduce gambling on Boracay to boost post-pandemic income faces significant opposition from the Diocese of Kalibo, Boracay Foundation Inc., and local residents, who cite environmental and social concerns. Conversely, PAGCOR supports the initiative, projecting substantial job creation and tourism revenue, while dismissing environmental risks. The debate highlights a conflict between economic recovery imperatives and local preservation efforts.","focusai_entities":"Rodrigo Duterte, Diocese of Kalibo, Boracay Foundation Inc. (BFI), Jose Corazon Tala-oc, PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation), Andrea Domingo","focusai_location":"Philippines, Boracay, Kalibo, Malay, Aklan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Boracay Gaming Governance?","query":"What specific governance frameworks and licensing conditions would PAGCOR implement to mitigate environmental and social impacts on Boracay, addressing local opposition?"},{"label":"Boracay Tourism Impact?","query":"How would the proposed integrated resort development on Boracay impact the existing tourism ecosystem and what market segmentation strategies would be employed to attract the projected 3,000 foreign tourists weekly?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16333],"tags":[23632,23907],"class_list":["post-22787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","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\/22787","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=22787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22811,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22787\/revisions\/22811"}],"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=22787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}