Palawan, oh we hope you’re here to stay

Despite our peso continuously on a slide, investors are still looking positively at the Philippines. We’ve had reports of big foreign groups looking to pitch their tents here, mostly at the Fort, Makati, Quezon City areas and, of course, Northern Palawan.

When GMA went to Singapore last year, she reportedly made a pitch about Palawan which got some people at the Banyan Tree, well-known for their excellent resort development projects across the world, interested enough to come for a look-see. The DOT people, specifically Ms. Ma Victoria Jasmin, brought them to Northern Palawan and the Banyan Tree representatives gushed over the natural wonders of Coron Island. In Ms. Jasmin’s words: “They went crazy. They kept saying I want this, I want that.. who owns this..who owns that?”

November of last year, they finalized and signed a memorandum of understanding to get the project going, witnessed by GMA herself. So, the wheels of that project are already a-turning.

Also interested after an ocular inspection of Palawan is the Taj Group of India. The DOT people reportedly brought them to Cebu and Bohol as well, but the Taj Group was just fixated on Palawan. Like Banyan Tree, the group went crazy over the whole area and kept comparing Palawan to the Maldives where, I understand, they have properties as well. The Taj Group is also into big time integrated resort development, though they do not yet have a presence here. Also worth mentioning is, like the Banyan Tree project which is seeing fruition, this is probably resulting from the President’s recent trip to India where she talked to big investors to check out Palawan, according to Ms. Jasmin.

Shangrila is also looking to put up yet another property, this time at the Fort. If and when it pushes through, that would be their 6th, counting the ones in Makati, Mactan and Boracay. That could only mean that their existing holdings here are highly profitable, and I can believe that. Try booking at the Shangrila in Mactan in the summer months — at premium rates, they are booked to the rafters. After a lot of cajoling, I managed to get only one room (one with an excellent view though), and couldn’t get a second one no matter which string I pulled.

And then there is the joint venture between Ayala Corporation and Kingdom Hotel. Construction of the two hotels — one service residence and the other a luxury hotel-is already on-going. Location is Pasay Road (remember the old Anson area?).

Other projects worth mentioning, though I do not have much of the details yet are the ones involving Rafols Hotel and Fairmont. The Hyatt Group is also planning to put up a Grand Hyatt at the Fort (they are already operating the Hyatt Hotel & Casino here). And then there is the proposed joint venture between the Araneta Group and ACCOR, a French conglomerate. ACCOR has indeed been spreading its wings. They already own and operate a property here —Sofitel Philippine Plaza. Negotiations are under way and nothing’s final yet, so the Aranetas are understandably tight-lipped about the deal.

About time, really, that we caught up with our ASEAN neighbors. Thailand has left us miles and miles behind. They have excellent infrastructure in place for their projected tourism boom, and look where they are now. Their tourism industry is one of the healthiest in the region, they have good roads and several new fly-overs, and they have enough hotels to accommodate vacationers from all over. One only has to look around in the capital city of Bangkok and squeeze through throngs of Americans, Europeans, and Asians walking through the city to know whereof I speak. I’m not even talking yet of their seaside resorts like Pattaya and Phuket which have awesome resort hotels dotting a not-so-awesome coastline. No kidding.

As an aside, maybe as a result of too much tourist traffic, one also has to be careful when using his international credit cards here. I have never experienced it before, but in one of my trips this year, my Visa card got cloned in Bangkok. And to think that I only used it in a high-end clothing store. The statement I got reflected substantial charges in Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong which I did not visit, including air tickets from Tiger Airways! Amazing how efficient these international syndicates are.

Back to the topic at hand. Vietnam and Cambodia, ravaged by decades of war and turmoil, have also overtaken us. I don’t know if it is the romanticized notion of these wars, but even Filipinos have been flocking to these two countries. Asked what they found intriguing, or at least memorable in both places, Pinoy friends and relatives would invariably say — we still have a beautiful country, and certainly the most beautiful beaches in the world. I dare anyone to label them biased.

With these latest developments, maybe we’re not too far behind now from these two neighbors. We have somehow liberalized our laws on foreign ownership, at least on the length of lease time. What used to be 25 years, I think, are now at 50, renewable for another 25 years, for a total of 75 years. Of course, this is dependent on the amount of investments involved. The incentives for foreign investors are also attractive, like tax holidays of four to six years and duty-free importation of capital equipment for those companies located in eco-zones, plus the added incentive of paying only something like five percent on gross income tax. The incentives are definitely there to attract. It is the politicizing that scares them off.

Anyway, with quite a few serious and interested groups waiting to come in, you can imagine that property owners are now also in a race to get into the action, if not through outright sales, at least through profitable joint ventures, which I think is the way to go. I hope the right agencies involved in facilitating these purchases or joint ventures would be more discerning in screening the properties being offered. These conglomerates are too busy to bother with untitled lands, lands only covered by tax receipts, lots burdened by encumbrances of any nature, undocumented ancestral lands and all the other gray or dubious conditions covering ownership of such vast tracts of land.

The DOT, though not empowered to broker such sales, is willing to facilitate, or at least match the buyers with prospective sellers. They only ask for full disclosure from property owners so everybody is properly apprised.

Yes, keep them coming. On the on-going series on favorite foods, restaurants, shopping places, shoe stores, etc. of yore (read: fifties, sixties, even seventies), here’s more from our faithful readers.

Still from Mon Guevarra (remember I said he sent me a litany with the help of Butch Belgica?): “Yung Good Earth Emporium pwede ring idagdag sa mga magagandang shopping mall noong araw. Yung Manila Opera House, Odeon, Hollywood, Cinerama ang mga sikat na sinehan noon. Sa Q.C. ay sikat yung Max’s Chicken at Dayrit’s. Ang dollar rate noon ay P3.70 Php sa $1 ang palitan. Ang Sarsi ay cinco centimos (5 centavos) at 10 centavos ang Coke. Pero sikat yung Canada Dry Uva at Orange na paborito namin noon.”

Yup, I remember those only too well. Ice -cold Sarsi with a small pack of hopia mongo or baboy at the nearby sari-sari store solved my hunger pangs deliciously.

From Mae Crisanto: “Please add to your list of old favorites the following: Cliquot Club, and Teem for soft drinks, and Serg’s Chocolate which was great if you did not have enough money for Milky Way.”