Works at historic MacArthur Hotel may not meet deadline, province to look for other investors

Press Release
By Provincial Media Relations Center
June 2, 2010

TACLOBAN CITY  –  As rehabilitation work at the MacArthur Park Beach Resort Hotel is stalled, the provincial government of Leyte is giving the Singaporean-backed conglomerate LKY Property Holdings to finish the rehabilitation by October this year.

However, Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla said during the recent Harampang ha PIA, he doubts works will be finished and meet up with the expected deadline.

More likely, he said, the two parties, the province and the developer, may have to go back to discussing again the terms of the 25-year contract to rehabilitate and turn the property into a world-class hotel under a more or less P300 million investment.

With the developer’s failure to finish up the job as agreed, the governor added, can be constituted as ‘breach of contract’.

“That’s what we have to further discuss. We are giving them the deadline till October,” the governor said.

He likewise disclosed partly the reason why rehabilitation works were stalled was that the same conglomerate is rehabilitating the Mayon Imperial Hotel in Legazpi City, Albay, another in Camarines Sur and has already invested in millions with the said projects.

If the schedule was followed, Gov. Petilla said, by this time there should already have been villas erected while construction of the hotel’s main building was being expected to commence between July to September this year.

“As it is now, I don’t think the schedule was followed and I doubt they could finish up on the date stated in our agreement,” Gov. Petilla said.

With this situation, the province is already scouting for other interested and willing investors who can turn the property into a world-class hotel to entice more tourism activity into the province.

To recall, the provincial government initiated the turn over of the hotel some years back before the Philippine Tourism Authority could declare it not to be earning enough revenue to continue operation.

The hotel has not seen that much improvements under the PTA then because, as with other PTA-run hotels in the country,  requests for materials for the hotel was centralized and takes time before the request is fully catered to.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo then directed the provincial government to take over the management and operations in January 2009, built by then First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos in the town of Palo, Leyte, and sequestered by the government after the Edsa Revolution in 1986.

The governor however remains optimistic that Leyte still remains as an alternative tourism destination, being a safe destination where people can relax.