The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, cancelled the land lease provided to Landing International for a casino in Manila earlier this month. However, Landing apparently didn’t get the memo. It has stated that the casino is still going to progress and held a groundbreaking ceremony on August 7. After the Philippine Star media outlet published an op-ed piece yesterday regarding construction work at the site, Landing felt it was time to clear the air.

In an email sent to GGRAsia, a representative for the company said, “Other than [putting up] site hoardings and clearing the land, we have not commenced any construction works since our ground breaking on August 7.” This is in contradiction to the op-ed article, which said that construction was at “full steam.” The representative added, “The construction equipment that the news article referred to including the bulldozers, cement mixers, [and] batching [cement-making] plant belong to another adjacent site, which is unrelated to us.”

GGRAsia asked the company for clarification on its schedule for the casino construction. It was given a “no comment at this stage” response, but subsequently added that it plans on keeping the 2022 launch date it has previously publicized.

This has been a contentious ordeal for Landing, as well as for President Duterte. There has been a lot of back-and-forth, with Landing saying that it has not been denied its construction or casino permits, and the government arguing to the contrary.