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WITH
initial assessment of damage to its premises at $1.2
million from Thursday’s six-hour standoff between
government and rebel soldiers, Manila Peninsula Hotel
Inc. in Hong Kong is finalizing plans to file a legal
claim.
The Hong
Kong-based board had just finished meeting Monday,
officials said at a press briefing that coincided with
the hotel formally reopening its swanky facilities to
the public, including plans to proceed with a weekend
concert at the lobby.
David
Batchelor, Manila Pen’s general manager, said the
hotel’s corporate board has just met in Hong Kong, and
that “the subject whether to pursue damages would likely
have to happen in the near future.”
Joining
Batchelor at the briefing was Tourism Secretary Ace
Durano, who revealed a Department of Tourism
(DOT)-endorsed proposal to grant the hotel a three-year
fiscal incentive to help it recover from the damage
caused by the standoff.
Batchelor said the Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels, which
owns 77 percent of the Peninsula Hotels, would release
its claim after 10 days, or on December 14.
The
Ayala group and Mr. Patricio “P.L.” Lim and other
Chinese businessmen in Manila own the 23-percent
balance.
The
hotel management decided Monday to formally resume
operations following a four-day closure to give way to
repairs on the premises damaged when a combined
military-police team laid siege on the hotel to force
out a group led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and
cashiered general Danilo Lim.
Trillanes led a walkout from a court hearing the coup d’
état charge against him in connection with the 2003
Oakwood mutiny, and Lim was a witness at Thursday
morning’s hearing. With civilian supporters and some of
the accused rebel soldiers trailing, they walked to the
Manila Pen and holed up in a function room at the second
floor.
Six
hours later, or some 90 minutes after a deadline imposed
by the government, the military-police team went inside,
preceded by an armored personnel carrier that rammed
through the hotel’s famed lobby entrance, as smoke from
tear gas filled the air.
Trillanes and Lim yielded peacefully, saying they did
not want to jeopardize the safety of civilians,
including hundreds of mediamen, leaders including former
vice president Teofisto Guingona, and two Catholic
bishops.
At
Monday’s briefing, Batchelor announced, with undisguised
pride at how the hotel handled the crisis well: “It’s
business as usual as the Manila Peninsula prepares to
welcome back its guests and patrons, with rooms and
suites, restaurants and banquet rooms ready for a busy
December in the run-up to the holiday season.”
The
Penisula’s lobby maintains its customary position and
the lavish decoration, a huge Christmas tree, with
festive carols filling the air.
The
shattered glass door of the main lobby was replaced with
a thick wooden door.
“While
last Thursday’s events were certainly a confusing and
distressing experience for everyone, we are extremely
pleased that everything is back to normal and we are
able to open the hotel again so quickly,” Batchelor
said.
Guests
are now returning, and bookings turned up to 51 percent
as of Sunday afternoon.
In
joining Batchelor at the press briefing, Tourism
Secretary Durano said the national government would be
giving tax incentives to Manila Peninsula to help the
hotel source funds for its renovation. Most of the
damage to the 31-year-old hotel were at the lobby, the
grounds and the second floor.
“We have
endorsed already that
Manila
Peninsula
should be given full fiscal incentives in income tax,”
Durano said.
Durano
said the endorsement was fast-tracked since Friday last
week after the incident. He said the Philippine Export
Zone Authority would facilitate the exemption of Manila
Peninsula, being the government agency mandated to clear
such exemptions.
Under
the plan, Manila Pen would be entitled to tax incentives
for the next three years, until 2011.
Durano
denied it was the President who ordered him to offer the
tax incentives to the Peninsula.
He said
that the President was only concerned with the safety of
the hotel’s guests and employees. |
