`Stanley not too bad for Pope, Clinton'

If Macau gambling mogul Stanley Ho is a bad guy, then why was he given an audience by US President Bill Clinton and even presented a papal award by Pope John Paul II?

This was what President Estrada said yesterday in defense of Ho, whose floating restaurant and potential casino docked in Manila Bay has been criticized by social watchdogs for being a possible conduit for the drug trade, gambling and other Chinese Triad operations.

"As far as I know, Stanley Ho was even given an audience by President Clinton and by our Pope and he was even given a papal award," the President told radio station dzMM.

The Jumbo Palace floating restaurant has been the object of denunciations by religious as well as anti-gambling groups such as the United Pasig Against Crime (UPAC).

The other day, UPAC head Alejandro Melchor claimed the Macau businessman is a mere front man for the dreaded Triad group based in Hong Kong.

"Upak nang upak, wala namang ebidensiya (They keep up with their demolition job when there's no evidence)," Mr. Estrada said.

"He (Ho) often goes to England and if he is really a drug lord, he should have been arrested already. He is based in Hong Kong, and right then and there, he should have been imprisoned if there is a grain of truth in UPAC's claims," the President said. Unless Ho is proven guilty, he said the Macau tycoon must be presumed innocent. "Who am I not to receive him as somebody who really wants to invest here?" Mr. Estrada asked.

When Ho visited Manila late last year, he paid a courtesy call on the President and announced plans to bring to the Philippines the 2,000-passenger capacity Jumbo Palace. He also expressed interest in investing in housing development projects here.

To appease the social watchdogs, the President assured them yesterday that the government will not grant any franchise to Ho to operate his floating restaurant as a casino.

Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) dismissed yesterday any supposition that the presence of Ho and his business in the country was a security threat.

"The issue of Stanley Ho is not a subject of discussions in the Cabinet Cluster E on National Security because it will be assuming prima facie that (he) is a security threat," Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said.

"He might be a gambling lord, but if he's in legal or illegitimate gambling, that's another case," he said.