By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo / Special to the BusinessMirror
INTEGRATED casino resorts are not required to accredit their establishments with the Department of Tourism (DOT).
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, DOT Director for Tourism Standards and Regulations Ma. Rica C. Bueno said the agency “does not accredit the complex itself; only their hotels need the mandatory accreditation”.
DOT’s latest list of accredited tourism establishments showed City of Dreams (COD) was the only accredited casino complex in Metro Manila, and categorized as a tourism entertainment complex. (See, “No DOT accreditation for 3 casino complexes,” in the BusinessMirror, June 13, 2017.)
This developed as the DOT said it would look into revising accreditation guidelines to include casino complexes.
At a news conference on Tuesday, DOT Spokesman and Assistant Secretary Frederick M. Alegre said: “Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo wants to work with the Peza [Philippine Economic Zone Authority] and Tieza [Tourism Enterprise Zone Authority] to implement strict security protocols of all facilities [that cater to tourists].”
He also said one of the areas the DOT is also looking at is possibly “revising DOT’s accreditation” procedures to include integrated resorts and casino complexes.
But RWM Assistant Vice President and Director for Corporate Communications Owen Cammayo, in a text message, said: “Per our compliance team, all our hotels—Maxim’s, Remington, Marriott are DOT-accredited.”
The DOT list showed only Marriott Hotel Manila and its Grand Ballroom, as well as the Newport Commercial Center Administration Inc., are accredited among all the establishments at the Newport City in Pasay.
Narlene A. Soriano, public relations manager for ICTSI, an affiliate of Bloomberry Resorts Corp., owner of Solaire Resort and Casino, said: “We’re looking into this now, why we aren’t on the list.” She did say the DOT, in 2014, “inspected Solaire and gave [it] a five-star accreditation.” The DOT, however, requires tourism establishments to apply for accreditation every year.
As for Okada Manila, Director of Sales Kimmy Labayandon said: “We have been processing our accreditation for sometime now.” She did not say, however, if this application for accreditation was for the hotel only or the entire integrated casino-resort.
DOT officials last week said the agency will be reviewing the accreditation papers of RWM and will be checking up on the security protocols of other integrated casino complexes, following the lone gunman attack on RWM on June 2. (See, “DOT to review RWM accreditation as casinos beef up security measures,” in the BusinessMirror, June 12, 2017.)
But Bueno, for her part, said “Resorts World did not apply for [DOT] accreditation; the process is voluntary.” She noted that COD was accredited as a tourism entertainment complex, “which falls under the category of secondary leisure enterprises”.
She added that casinos are already registered by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), as well as with the local government units (LGUs) where they are located. “Pagcor is really their government regulator,” she said.
At present, the DOT “only requires tourism establishments to submit their business permit from the Mayor’s Office for accreditation purposes,” she explained. “We didn’t want the accreditation process to be tedious, that they need to get so many permits and accreditations from many government agencies.”
Despite the lack of DOT accreditation for RWM and other casino complexes, Bueno said: “This does not stop us from working with the LGU concerned when we do inspections. If there is a problem, let’s say in health and sanitation, we write both the enterprise and the LGU [so they can take action on it].”
In a news conference last week, DOT’s Alegre said RWM was accredited by the government agency. “A facility like that needs our accreditation. Alam ko dumaan sa amin. The security aspect is part of the requirements you have to present to show preparenedness to operate the facility.”
He also enjoined the public to first check the list of accredited tourism establishments of the DOT, before making any booking reservations. “We have a web site [https://bit.ly/1LBCHST] you can visit to check if it’s accredited. Please check the [establishment] if it’s accredited, because we cannot answer for your safety and stay [if it is not accredited].”
Image credits: Bullit Marquez/AP
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