Dennis Uy loses Donatela resort after foreclosure, another blow to shrinking empire

LUXURY. A promotional image of Donatela Resort's Pool Villa.

Donatela Resort website

The luxury Bohol resort has been turned over to Landbank as Dennis Uy’s company struggles to overcome its overwhelming debt burden

AT A GLANCE

• Dennis Uy's luxury Donatela Resort and Sanctuary in Panglao, Bohol, has permanently closed following foreclosure due to unsustainable debt.
• The resort, which catered to high-end travelers, was part of PH Resorts Group Holdings' broader restructuring efforts amid significant financial losses and liabilities.
• PHR's financial struggles are highlighted by negative stockholders' equity and a substantial net loss, further complicating Uy's ambitious expansion during the Duterte administration.

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MANILA, Philippines – Dennis Uy’s luxury Donatela Resort and Sanctuary in Panglao, Bohol, has permanently closed after the property was foreclosed, marking another retreat for the businessman whose debt-fueled empire expanded rapidly during the Duterte administration.

PH Resorts Group Holdings (PHR) disclosed that its wholly owned subsidiary, Donatela Hotel Panglao Corporation, permanently ceased operating the resort at the end of September 30. 

Donatela Resort and Sanctuary was an exclusive luxury retreat in Panglao, Bohol, set on a sprawling tropical estate with private villas, landscaped gardens, a spa, and a cliffside restaurant overlooking the sea. The boutique resort catered to high-end travelers seeking privacy and seclusion. 

The problem was all that luxury was built on debt that Uy’s company was never able to meet.

The land and improvements comprising the hotel had been mortgaged to United Coconut Planters Bank, which has since been absorbed by Land Bank of the Philippines, and were subjected to extrajudicial foreclosure proceedings. Donatela was to turn over possession of the property to Landbank by the end of September. 

Donatela was considerably smaller than Uy’s failed flagship Emerald Bay casino project, but it still represented a sizable chunk of what remained of PHR’s asset base. The land, buildings, and other improvements pledged to Landbank for the Donatela loan had a carrying value of about P1.44 billion as of June 2026, about half of PHR’s P2.79 billion in total consolidated assets. 

Its closure comes as PHR attempts a much broader restructuring of a business hollowed out by years of losses and liabilities. Just a week earlier, in a September 23 disclosure, PHR laid out plans to transfer its stake in PH Travel and Leisure Holdings – through which it owns Donatela and its other operating subsidiaries – back to parent Udenna Corporation. 

“The Board determined that a comprehensive restructuring, involving the transfer of PH Travel to Udenna together with the rationalization of intercompany balances, offered the most direct and expeditious path to restoring PHR to a sustainable financial position, while providing a platform for future growth,” PHR said in its September 23 disclosure.

There is a lot of restoring to do. PHR’s consolidated stockholders’ equity was negative P5.953 billion as of June 30, while current liabilities exceeded current assets by around P4.01 billion. PHR is targeting a return to positive stockholders’ equity within two years after the restructuring. Restructuring, Uy’s company hoped, would remove most of the liabilities weighing on PHR and leave it operating largely as a listed holding company with no active business operations.

PHR’s 2025 financial statements show that strain clearly, with auditor SGV flagging a “material uncertainty” that could cast significant doubt on the parent company’s ability to continue as a going concern after it posted a P6.2-billion net loss, accumulated a P9.15-billion deficit, and recorded negative operating cash flow.

The Donatela foreclosure adds to the unraveling of the ambitions Uy built during the Duterte years. Uy, a major campaign donor of former president Rodrigo Duterte, snapped up everything from fuel, shipping, telecommunications, food, property, and gaming between 2016 to 2019. His meteoric rise drew scrutiny over his political ties to the administration, and the expansion itself leaned on borrowed capital. 

Since then, PHR already lost control of the land and unfinished development behind its much larger Emerald Bay casino project in Cebu after its repurchase option expired in 2025, contributing to billions of pesos in losses. Its provisional gaming license was later revoked. – Rappler.com