The town of Kawit in Cavite province proposed to establish a bigger Philippine Offshore Gaming Operation hub than the one in the former Island Cove Resort in Barangay Pulvorista.
Kawit Mayor Angelo Emilio Aguinaldo sent a letter to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. about the town’s plan to team up with private companies for the construction of the POGO City on a 70-hectare site.
Aguinaldo said the LGU-operated POGO City would complement the POGO Hub to be established in the former site of Island Cove Resort that Oriental Group general manager Kevin Wong acquired from the Remulla family.
“The municipality of Kawit is now host to a POGO hub located in the Island Cove and Animal Island in Barangay Pulvorista,” Aguinaldo said in the letter to PAGCOR chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo and president and COO Alfredo Lim.
“To fully maximize our advantage and participate fully in this enterprise, the municipality wants to establish a POGO City—an LGU initiated project that can cater to interested holders of online gaming licenses to locate and utilize our proposed facilities,” Aguinaldo said.
Aguinaldo said that with Kawit’s location less than 20 minutes from PAGCOR Entertainment City in Paranaque, the town is “uniquely and strategically placed to address the needs of the POGOs”.
“We are partnering with private entities that can help us establish the POGO City at no cost to the government equipped with state-of-the-art connectivity and security, a one-stop-shop for government processing centers like the Department of Labor and Employment, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Immigration, among others, fully furnished dormitories, entertainment centers, indoor and outdoor sports facilities and food centers” the local chief executive said.
“In this regard, the municipality of Kawit is offering 70 hectares to be developed as the POGO City and wants to secure the green light of your honorable office if we can be enrolled and allowed to undertake such project that will complement your direction to provide foreign nationals working in the POGOs the protection and security they need, give them easy access to facilities and provide them comfort and convenience,” Aguinaldo said.
PAGCOR earlier suspended accepting new applications for POGOs until all concerns “have been addressed.” The state-run gaming agency earlier unveiled a plan to establish POGO hubs outside Metro Manila to attract more investors. It approved the application of Wong’s Oriental Group to put up a 10-hectare hub in Clark Freeport Zone and a 20-hectare site in Cavite.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila, however, expressed “grave concern” over the plan to transfer offshore gaming operations to self-contained hubs, saying it could infringe on the basic legal rights of Chinese citizens.