AMID mixed reactions on the proposed responsible gambling ordinance in Quezon City, the 37-member City Council has endorsed the measure to another committee to review and fine-tune it.
District 1 Councilor Ivy Xenia Lagman said her committee on games and amusement chairperson has already endorsed the proposal to the committee on laws, and that a public hearing has been set on Sept. 6.
“We have already calendared the next hearing,” she told Manila Standard.
Earlier, Lagman said the city council would look into the suggestion of the powerful Iglesia ni Cristo religious group to change the language of responsible gambling.
INC spokesperson Edwil Zabala, in a previous public hearing, said “there was no such [this as] responsible gambling.”
“We will consider their recommendation,” Lagman said.
In 2014, the city council passed Ordinance No. SP-2285 regulating the operation of games of chance in Quezon City.
To strengthen the regulation, the council is pushing for the approval of the Proposed Ordinance 20CC-247 to formulate proactive measures to address the negative effects of gambling on health and welfare of its residents.
“We have to amend too many things in the proposed measure,” Lagman said
The city lawmakers are introducing a regulatory system on the operation of games of chance, including casino games, a year before the construction of a P20-billion hotel and casino in 2018.
Casino mogul Enrique Razon, Bloomberry Resorts Corp. chairman and founder, will put up the P20-billion hotel and casino that will rise on a P1.9-billion 15,676-square meter lot on the Vertis North development along Agham Road that may start mid-2018 and could be finished in 2019.
The Quezon City council has given Mayor Herbert Bautista the green light to sign and accept a deed of donation from a private developer.
Resolution 7132 introduced by Councilors Alexis Herrera (District 1), Franz Pumaren (District 3) and Karl Edgar Castelo (District 5) noted the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board’s issuance of a certificate of completion stating that the First Optima Realty Corp. had already subdivided and developed the subdivision.
The developer has donated open spaces Lot 6 Block 6, and Lot 7 Block 6 as well as road lots from Road Lot 1 to Road Lot 22.
“The board of directors of First Optima Realty Corp. through Board Resolution No. 2016-14 approved the deed of donation of 22 road lots and two open spaces located inside Cresta Verde Executive Homes Subdivision, Barangay Sta. Monica, Quezon City,” the resolution read.
The First Optima Realty Corp. is the registered owner of two open spaces and 22 road lots at Cresta Verde Executive Homes Subdivision in Barangay Sta. Monica.
Meanwhile, the city council also passed a resolution to support a legislative measure calling for the inclusion of immigration officers in the income standardization for civil service employees, thereby increasing their salaries and augmenting the benefits due them.
City Resolution 7133, introduced by District 3 Councilor Allan Benedict Reyes, said the salary scale of the immigration officers has not been reviewed since 1988.