Malacañang on Monday admitted an executive order was needed to strictly enforce the ban on casino operations in Boracay a week after it reopened to the public.
“I think so, yes,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo, replying to reporters’ questions, told a Palace press briefing.
“The policy of the President is there should be no gambling casino inside Boracay because he feels that this is a family thing. Families go there, and he doesn’t want that there will be gambling inside Boracay,” he added, stressing that Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea should draft the EO.
Panelo echoed the Department of Justice’s recommendation that an EO was important to effectively prohibit all forms of gambling in the island even as the Palace already warned gambling operators not to test President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to prevent casinos from establishing a business in Boracay.
Meanwhile, tax relief for businesses, residents, and workers in Boracay and surrounding areas has become even more necessary now that it has become clear that tourist arrivals will be limited to Boracay’s so-called “carrying capacity” and with new inspections processes government agencies put in place, said Rep. Carlos Roman Uybarreta, author of a bill granting a Boracay tax reprieve.
Uybarreta filed House Bill 8537 which seeks to provide a one-time allowable extraordinary operating loss deduction equivalent to fifty percent of audited operating losses incurred in taxable year 2018.
“Noting the continuing disregard to anti-littering and other environmental laws and regulations, there is an urgent need to impose stiffer fines and other administrative penalties against violators,” the congressman said.
According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Boracay has a “carrying capacity of 19,000 tourists per day or about 55,000 people including residents, workers and tourists.”
At the same time, the Department of Tourism said on Oct. 25 it accredited only 157 establishments in Boracay with total combined 7,300 rooms.
“With all these limitations, the financial health of Boracay businesses, employees, and residents will certainly be troubled this year and in 2019. Giving them urgent tax relief will ease the pain they are suffering,” Rep. Uybarreta said in a press statement.
Justice chief Menardo Guevarra, who called for the EO in a legal opinion, said its issuance would “guide” not only the current administration but also for a longer term, the matter of implementing no-casino policy in Boracay.
In a legal opinion, the DoJ maintained that an EO was “proper” to direct the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation to hold and revoke the grant of licenses to casino operators in Boracay.
The directive to ban casinos on the island was made after President Duterte ordered the six-month closure of the world-famous tourist destination for rehabilitation purposes.
Duterte then directed several government officials to rehabilitate Boracay after describing the island as a “cesspool.”
The President also vowed to personally visit Boracay to distribute eight hectares of land reform program certificates for the 31 indigenous families.
“I will go to Boracay, but I will go to distribute the lands given to the Atis. I’m not into sumptuous celebration. But I will go to Boracay to personally distribute the land reform program certificates to the Lumads there, the natives,” said Duterte.”‹
