Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed a new member of the board of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation. Paolo Sotero Laurel replaces Gerald Valles Medina, fired last year over the “grossly disadvantageous” Nayon Landing casino deal, reports local media outlet Tataydigong.com.
Laurel, former executive assistant to the president at the Lyceum of the Philippines, will see out Medina’s term, which ends June 30.
Duterte fired the entire board of trustees of the foundation last August, alleging they tried to arrange a sweetheart deal for Landing Resorts Philippines Development Corp. of China. The company originally got a 70-year lease for the Nayon Landing project, a term that was later reduced to 50 years, then 25.
On August 8 last year, the day the project broke ground, Duterte fired the board members and cancelled the project.
“Do not give gambling licenses or franchise for 75 years,” he said at the time. “The child is born today, 75 years later he’s that old. There will still be gambling in the city and I will not allow it,”
Duterte also promoted Department of the Interior and Local Government spokesman Jonathan Malaya to undersecretary. Malaya was formerly the executive director of the PDP-Laban Federalism Institute. He was also assigned by Duterte as an administrator of the DILG’s Federalism and Constitutional Reform program.
