Big Hotel |CDND Photo/Tonee Despojo
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines—The camp of Cebu sixth district Representative Jonas Cortes has labeled the closure of two hotels in Mandaue City as an act of politicking.
Lawyer Jamaal Calipayan, Cortes’ chief of staff, maintained that the transfer of the leasing right from the first lessee, Katumanan Hardware, to Cenore Corporation, which operates the hotels, was valid and binding.
Mandaue City government implemented the closure order against Big Hotel and Big Hotel Suites on Wednesday, February 27, due to an alleged anomaly in the deed of assignment or the transfer of the leasing right from Katumanan Hardware to Cenore Corp.
Lawyer Elaine Bathan, executive secretary of Mayor Gabriel Luis “Luigi” Quisumbing, said the deed of assignment was invalid since Cortes, then as the mayor of the city, did not have the authority from the city council when he signed as conformee to the agreement in 2013,
Calipayan explained that Cortes did not need the authority from the council since the assignment of the lease contract was allowed in the terms of the agreement entered into between the city government and Katumanan Hadware.
He added that the action of the city government has put at stake the “employment and businesses of hundreds of Mandauehanons for the sake of going after his nemesis.”
“Nasakripisyo ang mga negosyante ug mga empleyado. It is unfortunate nga ang mga negosyo sa Mandaue gigukod tungod sa politika,” Calipayan said.
Cortes is seeking to regain the mayoral seat of Mandaue City against reelectionist Quisumbing in the May 13, 2019 midterm elections.
Bathan, however, refuted Calipayan’s politicking allegations saying that due process and ample time was given to the hotels’ management since the discovery of the issue in January 2018.
“We are not against the business operation of Big hotel per se. We even held meetings with them. We gave them due process. We gave them ample time, we did not close them right away and we even gave them enough time to comply,” Bathan said.
Bathan added they only wanted to rectify an ‘anomalous’ and ‘disadvantageous’ transaction that was pointed out by one of the audit reports of the Commission on Audit (COA).