Senate President Aquilino L. Pimentel III led the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the Midori Clark Hotel and Casino on Monday.
Located on Luzon Island, Philippines at Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga, approximately 90 kilometers north of Manila, the P4 billion dollar hotel is being developed by a group of Taiwanese investors, BB International Leisure and Resort Development Corp. (BBI).
Along with Pimentel, who also led the groundbreaking ceremony for the hotel back in 2013, BBI top executives, including Chairman Jack Yang, President Dr. Irineo Alvaro Jr., and Director Ford Chiang, were on hand on Monday to cut the ribbon with Ronnie Tiotuico, Regional Director for the Department of Tourism, Midori General Manager Vic Chan, and Clark Development Corp. (CDC) AVP Noelle Meneses, according to local media.
Also in attendance were Alexander Cauguiran, Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) OIC and Mabalacat City Mayor Marino Morales.
The 9,900 square meter (106,500 square feet) property, which has direct traffic links to Clark International Airport, has 111 luxury rooms; the largest being 368 square meters, Sealy beds, ACCA Kappa and L’occitane essentials and the main lobby of the hotel features world-class Dedon furniture. Other amenities include a restaurant, café, bar and lounges, karaoke venue, pool, spa and fitness center, meeting and event space, and Mahjong room.
Reports at the time of the property’s soft launch in summer 2016 indicated that the casino would open with 140 machines and 12 gaming tables, eventually increasing to 160 gaming machines and 39 tables.
During the ceremony, Alvaro said, “What we are doing right now, either in Midori or at Mirej, is a continuation of trying to prove there is life after the Americans. This has been our thesis ever since when we were working inside the base because there were some who believed that if the Americans leave, we will die. But we did not believe that in Midori. We proved them wrong and Mirej is a continuation of proving even without foreign support, we can do it with sheer determination,” according to local news agency, Business Mirror.
Alvaro went on to say that, “Part of our effort is we are bring our own tourists from Taiwan, Japan and other places like right now, we have visitors from Tokyo who came here just to attend the grand opening of Midori,” according to the report.