PAGCOR to sign license for Galaxy casino in Boracay on Wednesday

The provisional license for a $500-million integrated casino resort in Boracay will be signed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) on Wednesday, March 21, the regulator said on Tuesday.

“Yes. So far, there’s been no change in schedule,” PAGCOR Chairperson Andrea Domingo told GMA News Online.

Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. and its local partner Leisure & Resorts World Corp. intends to build a casino hotel complex in the island resort.

The plan supposedly would not be affected by the recommendation of the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Tourism (DOT) to close Boracay for up to one year in order to rehabilitate and clean up the island resort.

President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to close the island, labeling it a “cesspool.”

PAGCOR said on Friday the contract for the provisional license would be signed before the end of the month.

Shares of LRWC closed at P7.06 per share on Tuesday, unchanged from Monday.

Aside from LRWC, DoubleDragon Properties Corp. also plans to build the “biggest” hotel in the country under the Hotel101 brand in Boracay.

The Hotel101 Resorts-Boracay will have a total of 1,001 rooms and will rise in Megaworld Corp.’s 150-hectare estate.

“We’re still in the planning and design stages that also take time naman: on finalizing your plans and securing the permits. So it wouldn’t delay construction,” DoubleDragon chief investment officer Hannay Yulo said in response to the planned closure of the island.

Over the weekend, hotel and resort owners in Boracay staged a silent protest against the planned shutdown by switching their lights off for eight minutes. —VDS, GMA News