The Nayong Pilipino Cultural Park and Creative Hub is a planned cultural theme park to be built at the

Entertainment City Entertainment City, also known as E-City (formerly PAGCOR City and Manila Bay Tourism City), is a gaming and entertainment complex under development by PAGCOR spanning an area of in Bay City, Metro Manila. It was first envisioned by PAGCOR in 2 ...

Parañaque Parañaque, officially the City of Parañaque (, ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

History

The

Nayong Pilipino Foundation The Ang Nayong Pilipino Foundation Inc. (NPFI), simply known as the Nayong Pilipino Foundation (NPF) or Nayong Pilipino is a non-profit organization based in Manila, Philippines. It is an autonomous government corporation under the Department of ...

(NPF) owns a property in the

, which is formally known as the Bagong Nayong Pilipino–Entertainment City Manila. The reclaimed area is meant to host an integrated casino, hotel, retail and entertainment complex. Among the developments in the area is the

Solaire Resort & Casino Solaire Resort (also known simply as Solaire) is a chain of casino hotel, integrated resorts in the Philippines. As of 2024, there are two properties: Solaire Resort Entertainment City in Parañaque and Solaire Resort North in Quezon City. So ...

and

Okada Manila Okada Manila ( Japanese: オカダマニラ, romanized: ''Okada Manira'') is an integrated resort located on the Entertainment City gaming strip in Parañaque, Metro Manila, Philippines. With a total construction cost of about ¥250 billion, O ...

casino resort A casino hotel is an establishment consisting of a casino with temporary lodging provided in an on-premises hotel. Customers receive the benefits of both gambling facilities and lodging. Since the casino and hotel are located on the same premis ...

s. The NPF which operated a cultural park near

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA ; ; ), also known as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main international airport serving Metro Manila in the Philippines. Located between the cities of Pasay and Parañaque, about south of ...

, planned to build a replacement in its Entertainment City property. The NPF had a project for a tourism-oriented New Nayong Pilipino approved by the

National Economic and Development Authority The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev; ) is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for national and regional economic policy, development, monitoring, and planning. DEPDev also oversees the pl ...

in 2016, to be built under a Public-private partnership.

NayonLanding

NPF entered in an agreement with to build a cultural theme park with a casino with Hong Kong-based Landing International. Landing International was granted a provisional license by government-run casino regulator

PAGCOR Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR; ) is a government-owned and controlled corporation established in 1977 through the Presidential Decree No. 1869. PAGCOR is the Philippines' largest contributor of revenue to the government ...

in July 2018 despite President Rodrigo Duterte's directive not to issue new casino permits in earlier in the same year. This meant that the development, dubbed NayonLanding would only be allowed to operate in 2022 at earliest. Under NPF chairperson, Patricia Ocampo, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the NayonLanding development, but on the same day President

Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945) is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the first Philippine president from Mindanao, and is the oldest person to assum ...

removed all board members of the NPF from their post. Duterte concluded that the alleged 70-year lease deal between the NPF and Landing was "grossly disadvantageous". Ocampo in response said that lease length was actually 25 years, renewable for another 25 years and that the lease rate the government would receive from the project is per square meter, higher than

Resorts World Manila Newport World Resorts (formerly Resorts World Manila) is an integrated resort, located in Newport City, opposite Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3, in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. The resort is owned and operated by Tr ...

and Solaire. Presidential spokesperson

Harry Roque Herminio Harry Lopez Roque Jr. (; born October 21, 1966) is a Filipino lawyer, politician, and former law professor. He served as the presidential spokesperson of President Rodrigo Duterte from 2017 to 2018 and from 2020 to 2021. He was the pa ...

added that the project was contrary to President Duterte's earlier directive against casinos. The deal between the NPF and Landing was cancelled a year later.

Cultural Park and Creative Hub

President Duterte reaffirmed his position that a New Nayong Pilipino park should have no casino component in October 2019. A project for the Nayong Pilipino Cultural Park and Creative Hub was approved by Duterte's Cabinet. At around this time, the NPF is coordinating with the

Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), formerly the Philippine Tourism Authority (), is an agency of the Philippine national government under the Department of Tourism (Philippines), Department of Tourism responsible ...

(TIEZA) of the Department of Tourism (DOT) to come up with a plan which includes a creative hub for artists and cultural workers.

COVID-19 pandemic

The NPF temporarily stopped progress on the Nayong Pilipino Cultural Park and Creative Hub project in October 2020 amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines The COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , there have been reported cases, and reported deaths, the fift ...

. The site was also named as possible area where a quarantine facility could be built as part of the government's response against the pandemic. The

Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is an inactive task force organized by the executive of the government of the Philippines to respond to affairs concerning emerging infectious diseases in ...

(IATF-EID) approved the construction of a temporary vaccination facility at the site in April 2021 through a public-private venture. In May 2021, International Container Terminals Services, Inc. (ICTSI) Foundation led by businessman

Enrique K. Razon Enrique Klar Razon Jr. (born March 3, 1960) is a Filipino billionaire and the chairman and CEO of the Manila-listed company International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), a Philippine port-handling company. He is also the Chairman of ...

emerged as the government's private partner that would help set up a vaccination center in the NPF site. The NPF itself opposed such plans over concerns that trees in the area would be cut down. In response, the ICTSI Foundation, the IATF-EID and DOT said that the vaccination site would be built on a vacant area and not affect any trees. The ICTSI Foundation hired the services of architect and environment planner Felipe Palafox Jr. for the facility. The vaccination site was launched as the Solaire ICTSI Foundation, Inc. Vaccine Center with drive-thru vaccination beginning on August 12, 2021. It is planned to have a capacity to inoculate 15,000 people daily dependent on the vaccine supply. Ambulatory service is projected to commence in September 2021.

References

{{reflist Amusement parks in the Philippines Proposed buildings and structures in Metro Manila Planned amusement parks