CLARK FREEPORT – A casino operating at the Oxford Hotel here has remained shut down after it was recently padlocked twice on the same day for alleged failure to pay dues.
The government- owned Clark Development Corp. said it padlocked Monday last week the hotel’s Princess Casino operated by the Community Gaming and Amusement Network Inc. (CGANI) for its failure to pay some P103 million worth of dues.
On the same day, officials of Oxford Hotel, led by its president Eduardo Datu again “repadlocked” the casino on the hotel’s ground floor also for the alleged failure of (CGANI) to pay lease worth another P100 million. Datu said that CGANI has been leasing the casino space for years and was already operating the casino when he assumed post as the hotel’s president two years ago.
No one from CGANI could immediately be reached yesterday. Datu said it appeared that the casino was earning, as indicated by documents on its daily remittances to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR).
He said that despite the failure of the casino to settle its dues to his hotel, Oxford has religiously paid its P700,000 lease on the hotel and its grounds to the CDC which is the operating arm of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) in this freeport.
He said the CDC was the first to padlock the casino as the state firm had police power.
