Rockwell residents decry fee increases

Lately, this columnist has been receiving complaints about the escalating homeowners’ fees at Rockwell, a self-contained high-rise facility in a posh section of Makati City, and a place dubbed as a haven for affluent middle-to-top-level professionals, businessmen, socialites, and retired persons of both local and foreign nationalities.

They say that their "chorus of discontent" and "profound disbelief" about their current predicament could be traced to their "naïvete" in believing Rockwell management’s high-powered advertising brochures and marketing prospectus. They also claim that the skyrocketing costs of operation of the facility, which they say the owners and management of Rockwell describe as "beyond control", are not their (the unit owners’) responsibility, and such "added costs" should not be passed to them.

They are asking if the proposed astronomical increases in homeowners’fees could have been brought about by management insufficiency, or worse, lack of vision in their financial assumptions and projections. They further say that under this very difficult times, management should immediately cut costs of operation to arrest the galloping high costs of operation. This columnist’s opinion is that the directors and executives should take the lead in a cost-cutting-initiative by sacrificing and taking "pay cuts" firing inefficient executives, reducing if not eliminating ostentatious and unnecessary electricity bills, and firing excess supervisory and menial personnel.

Regarding the problems "beyond the control of the owners and management", the homeowners interpret these as "financial problems" which the facility owners and management could talk over with their bankers and lenders so they could be given break. Or they can reduce their profits. Or accept a loss because it is their fault and not of the resident unit owners in making faulty financial projections and management operations or decisions. They say that as resident unit owners, they are not contributory to the profit or loss the company, and are merely owners of the units they bought from Rockwell with hard-earned monies.

In fairness, however, to the owners and management of Rockwell, I would be happy to present their side, at the same time, wondering if the homeowners read and understood the fine print of the contracts they entered into and signed in buying their units. They may, from the beginning, have agreed and signed their contracts without reading and understanding them.

* * *

I am a lover of pizza and have gone to about every pizza place here and in any country I happen to be at. London’s PizzaExpress has been a favorite of mine (despite Tony Blair), so it’s very good news that there is now a PizzaExpress at the ground floor of Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center, Makati. PizzaExpress in Greenbelt is now the 400th branch in the world, and all of its 20 different pizzas look, taste and smell exactly like those one finds in all the 399 branches.

Makati’s pizza crust, has that thin, rich crust that is prepared by a dough specialist in one end of the restaurant, within view of diners. Our group of seven last week finished to the last crumb the smoked salmon (Salmone Affumicato) that had fresh dill, tomatoes, mascarpono and mozzarella. Then we tried the Fiorentina, topped with spinach, hard-cooked egg, garlic, olives and tomatoes, and then the Prince Carlo, yes, named after Prince Charles and made of parmesan, leeks, rosemary, mozzarella and tomato. For salad, we had Salad Nicoise of tuna, egg, anchovies, capers, olives, mixed leaf salad, fine green beans, potatoes and tomato, which was served with baked dough balls and PizzaExpress dressing. The small boy with us lapped up the Lasagna Pasticciate, made of leaves of pasta with bechamel, cheese, bolognese sauce and parmesan and tomato. For desserts we had Gelati, an exclusive PizzaExpress ice cream, a heavenly chocolates fudge cake and Panna Cotta.

For vegetarians, there are the Margheritam and the Giardinera, which has the freshest slice tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, red peppers, leeks, peas and mozzarella as toppings. The Mushroom pizza is a popular choice, as is the Veneziana which has capers, onions, olives, pine kernels and sultanas.

* * *

PizzaExpress owners are Carmelo G.C. Ortiz and sister Estelle, Dean K. Dayo, and Manny Ticzon, who also own the popular Auntie Anne chain of flavored pretzels, and Hue, the Vietnamese restaruant on the second level of Greenbelt 3. (Carmelo and Estelle’s sister, Angel, by the way, owns the successful Brown Sugar Muffins bakeshop at Greenbelt 1). Several years ago, Manny was in London, with a young son, and there tasted his first PizzaExpress. Just three weeks ago, he and his partners opened the first franchise in the Philippines.

But the very first PizzaExpress was started by Peter Boizot, a native of Peterborough (UK), who found the offerings of a pizza place in Italy food for body and soul. On March 29, 1965, he opened his first restaurant in London’s Soho District serving the pizza done the way Italians do it, and two years later, opened a branch in Bloomsbury with the help of top designer Enzo Apicella, who is credited with all the restaurants’ interior design, from the open kitchen to natural light and high quality natural woods and stone for furniture.

* * *

Estelle trained in the UK for the restaurant’s operations, and six of the staff went there to learn to make the dough, and pizza favorites. The tomato sauce is exclusively PizzaExpress, coming in canned from the UK. The oven, Estelle says, is exclusively made for all outlets around the world.

The restaurant can seat 150 persons. The lunchtime crowd is good, but when dusk falls, the place teems with yuppies who find the pizza, ambience and friendly staff addictive.

* * *

My e-mail address:[email protected]