by MALOU MANGAHAS and TITA C. VALDERAMA

The firm's “managing director” is Donato C. Almeda, who has just a peso investment in Bloombury, is the brother of Antonio Mariano Almeda, chief of staff of Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo.

A COMPANY that has neither track record in the gaming business nor proven financial capability to back up a multibillion-peso enterprise is poised to become the newest investor in the ambitious “Tourism City” project of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).

	THE envisioned Tourism City on Manila Bay. [image courtesy of Pagcor website]

But what Bloombury Investments Ltd. lacks in these top two criteria for investors in the Pagcor project, it more than makes up for in terms of political connections, based on records of the state-run corporation itself, as well as information from those privy to the deals.

At least two close allies of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have been linked to Bloombury: Jose ‘Pepito’ Ch. Alvarez, who is listed as the company’s president, and Enrique ‘Ricky’ K. Razon Jr., whose legal counsel in his family’s International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), Silverio ‘Benny’ J. Tan, is Bloombury corporate secretary.

Bloombury's managing director, meanwhile, is Donato C. Almeda, brother of Antonio Mariano C. Almeda, the chief of staff and “horse trainer” of Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel ‘Mikey’ M. Arroyo, eldest son of President Arroyo. In the May 2007 elections, Antonio Almeda was the No. 4 party-list nominee of Ahonbayan, which had been tagged by militants as a group fielded by the Arroyo administration.

Bloombury was supposedly counting on the purse and gaming expertise of Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd. (PBL), owned by Australia’s third richest man, 40-year-old James Douglas Packer. Pagcor accepted Bloombury’s $1.14-billion proposal in September 2007 reportedly on the basis of its partnership with PBL.

	NEXT PART 2 tackles the persistent doubts, in relation to the 'Tourism City' project, about the transparency of financial transactions and decisionmaking processes in the state gambling agency.

PBL’s gaming concerns have since been put into a new Packer company, Crown Ltd. Last June 16, Crown issued a press statement saying that neither the company nor Packer was in “advanced talks” with Bloombury regarding the Pagcor venture. (see sidebar)

Minus Crown, Bloombury for now is nothing more than a paper entity.

In a recent interview with the PCIJ, Pagcor President Rafael ‘Butch' Francisco and Senior Vice President Rene C. Figueroa said that what Pagcor accepted was only Bloombury’s “concept.” Added Figueroa: “We haven't granted them anything pa. There is no license, no nothing.”

They also denied reports that “subtle and not so subtle pressure” had been applied on Pagcor to bring in Bloombury as an investor in Tourism City.

Still, the fact that Bloombury has managed to get this far in Pagcor’s $20-billion project has raised eyebrows even within Pagcor itself. It also calls into question the process through which Pagcor chooses participants in a project that was made possible only after the state firm acquired a new charter last year.

PAGCOR'S AWESOME POWERS
With its budget deficit and debts, the Philippine government cannot by itself finance the cost required to build Tourism City, which the Arroyo administration hopes to be comparable, if not greater than Macau, in terms of gambling and entertainment. The key to the project’s success, argued its proponents, lay in private investors, who would get licenses to operate casinos from Pagcor — until recently the monopolistic regulator and operator of legal gambling in the country.

Under its old charter, only Pagcor was allowed to operate casinos. (The charter was also scheduled to expire — along with the state firm — on July 11, 2008, which is why Pagcor applied for a 25-year extension as early as 2002, renewable for another 25 years.)

In February last year, on the last day of a Congress special session right before the May 2007 polls, the House approved Pagcor’s new charter, which gave the state corporation the power to subfranchise its franchise to private investors.

The House majority, then led by current Speaker Prospero Nograles, deemed the Pagcor franchise of utmost importance. It passed way ahead of a pending wage hike bill and the controversial cheaper medicines bill.

Pagcor has since lost no time to fast-track Tourism City as well. It disclosed its terms of reference for investors, including a four-stage evaluation process before the issuance of a regular license.

In its terms of reference, Pagcor sought investors with "the financial capability and a well-established experience in the hotel and gaming business."

Principal investors were also encouraged to apply, but were required to partner with qualified hotel and gaming operations entities with a "track record in organizing and operating world-class hotel and gaming projects."