Tiger Resort Asia Ltd. issued a statement refuting the claim of Kazuo’s Group owner rightful ownership of Okada Manila and below is the statement they released to the media:
We at Tiger Resort Asia Ltd. (TRAL), the owner of 99.99 percent of shares in Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc. (TRLEI), denounce in the strongest possible terms the recent statements made by the group of Kazuo Okada as false and preposterous.
Kazuo Okada, cohorts are not recognized
We would like to reiterate to the public that any claim from the Kazuo Group is not reflective of our position as the owners of integrated casino resort Okada Manila.
TRAL does not recognize Kazuo and his cohorts Tonyboy Cojuangco and Dindo Espeleta, among many others, as officers of Okada Manila’s operator TRLEI.
No one from the Kazuo Group holds a single share in TRLEI. As such, they have no legal right to sit on the board, much less to manage the integrated casino resort and claim that they have created an atmosphere of growth since their violent takeover on 31 May 2022.
The Kazuo Group has been perverting a Status Quo Ante Order issued by the Philippine Supreme Court and misleading the public as to what the Order actually directs. Most importantly, however, these interlopers — Cojuangco and Espeleta — may have forgotten that we are not a party in the Supreme Court case.
Credit grabbing
The claim that they drove up Okada Manila’s revenues — from gaming, hotel bookings, food and beverage sales, and daily visits — is absurd and without factual basis.
Even before the easing of pandemic restrictions, the legitimate board of TRLEI led by Byron Yip has already crafted a recovery and sustainability program that will allow Okada
Manila to grow and flourish after suffering from the adverse effects of the community quarantines.
The initiative includes the True Clean, True Safe, True Heart (3T) Campaign, a safety program that TRLEI set in motion in 2020. The campaign reinforced Okada Manila’s commitment to providing guests with clean, safe, and excellent service even during the pandemic, resulting in a substantial increase in occupancy rates after the 2020 hard lockdown.
For the 3T Campaign, TRLEI earned the International Association of Business Communicators Quill Award in 2021 and the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association award in 2022. This campaign was also integral in earning the Forbes Travel Guide and Sharecare VERIFIED stamp, Department of Tourism (DOT) safety seal, and the WTTC Safe Travels Stamp.
Aside from this, plan also includes the resumption of the operations of Okada Manila’s retail tenants as well as the addition of new merchants to expand its offerings to guests.
The legitimate board of TRLEI also rolled out the casino marketing strategy that has led to Okada Manila’s strong gross gaming revenue growth despite the limitations brought by the pandemic.
Now that we are at a more comfortable space into the pandemic, almost all of the businesses in the leisure, entertainment, gaming, and tourism expect an upswing in booking requests, revenues, and visits owing to the revenge travel phenomenon.
To claim that the Kazuo Group’s one-month seizure of Okada Manila magically resulted in significant growth in the company’s revenues is just plain and blatant falsehood.
The growth that Okada Manila is experiencing today is driven largely by the strong recovery plan that the legitimate TRLEI board developed and is influenced by the pent up demand for travel and leisure activities.
No turnover, but a violent takeover
We would also like to highlight that there was no formal turnover of the management of Okada Manila to the Kazuo Group. But there was in fact, a violent takeover.
Video evidence and testimonies show the brute force used on the legitimate board to illegally take over Okada Manila. Cases of kidnapping, serious illegal detention, physical injuries, grave coercion, and unjust vexation have been filed before the Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ) against Kazuo Okada, Cojuangco, Espeleta, Tetsuya Yokota, and Hiroshi Kawamura.
TRAL abhors the violent acts of the Kazuo Group and strongly condemns their attempt to divert the issue.
Baseless, malicious lies
Despite being the namesake of the integrated casino resort, Kazuo Okada, who has 29 pending criminal and civil cases in six countries around the world, was ousted from TRLEI, TRAL, and UEC in 2017 after an internal investigation revealed that he stole $20 million for personal gain.
His ouster was not unexpected and was in fact seconded by the Japanese Supreme Court, which ordered him to pay back the amount. To date, Kazuo Okada has yet to return the money he stole from the company.
Any future plans that he and his cohorts project are baseless and are without merit, as TRAL does not recognize — much less support — him or his henchmen in conducting the business of Okada Manila.
We have faith that the Philippine Supreme Court will act with dispatch to put to rest this intra-corporate dispute that has affected the 5,000-strong employees of Okada Manila, its suppliers, and its investors.