Mt Province gov’t to turn over historic Mt. Data Hotel to PTA
>> Friday, January 29, 2016
By Angel Baybay
The
provincial government will return to the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) the
management of Mount Data Hotel effective Feb. 8 this year.
Hotel manager Dolly Theodore said their staff
is presently making an inventory of furniture and other serviceable equipment
in preparation for the turn over.
Built in the 1960’s during the administration
of the late president Ferdinand Marcos, the management of the 22 room single
storey building and its premises was conveyed to the PTA through a Presidential
Decree in 1977.
The hotel stands at the heart of a forested
9.19 hectare lot within the Mount Data National Park, more or less a hundred
kilometres away from Baguio City.
For years the facility had been a favourite
stop-over of travellers going to and from the tourist towns of Banaue and
Sagada.
It also prides itself of having hosted past
presidents and foreign dignitaries including historic events such as the
signing of the peace accord between the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army and
the late President Corazon Aquino on September 13, 1986 popularly known as the
Mount Data “Sipat”.
On Feb. 8, 2006, the PTA relinquished the
management and administration of the hotel and its premises to the provincial
government for 10 years by virtue of a memorandum of agreement.
Sources have it that the MOA was signed after
then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo expressly signified her affirmation to
the undertaking as proposed by then Gov. Maximo Dalog.
Part of the MOA stipulated that the
provincial government shall pay three percent of the monthly gross income
to the PTA and hire the services of the hotel employees who were laid off in
December 2005.
“No. The province will turn over to PTA the
management of Mount Data Hotel after the MOA expires on February 8,” Gov.
Leonard Mayaen said when asked if he plans to renew the contract.
“It had been 10 years but the hotel cannot
even earn enough for its upkeep and pay the salary and other financial benefits
of the employees. It is a losing enterprise and the provincial government could
not afford that. In fact, the province is spending more or less three million
pesos annually to pay the wages of the employees,” he said.
The governor added the local government unit
has hired the employees separated from PTA in 2005 and assumed the
responsibility of paying their retirement benefits.
Today, the hotel is manned by eighteen
employees. These employees shall be assigned to various provincial government
offices after the turn-over of the hotel.
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