BERJAYA PROTEST | Makati hotel protests suspension order after Poblacion Girl incident

January 6, 2022 , 06:45 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(January 6, 2022) – A Makati City three-star hotel protested the tourism and city government’s order to shutter operations, following an incident where a woman skipped quarantine after returning from the United States, arguing the directive lacks legal basis.

Berjaya Makati Hotel has also called for due process over the department’s suspension order, noting the directive is not final. It planned to appeal the order within the fifteen-day period it was given.

“To close down a quarantine hotel for no legal reason is to close down a hospital just when it is helping to win the war,” the hotel said in a statement. “There is no benefit to be gained by such regulatory posturing when national interest and public health are on the line.”

The hotel raised concerns over where to keep their quarantine guests if they immediately close down, noting that they currently house 80 who are under mandatory quarantine and 18 who have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and have not yet been pulled out by the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ).

“We also have around 20 quarantine guests per week coming in and have paid in advance. The inconvenience to the public is incalculable, unnecessary and preventable,” the hotel said.

The department on Wednesday suspended Berjaya’s accreditation after the hotel reportedly allowed a woman to leave shortly after checking in the hotel to attend a party before Christmas. The woman, identified as Gwyneth Anne Chua, later tested positive of COVID-19.

The tourism department said the hotel violated quarantine rules after its security personnel and front lobby failed to call Chua’s attention or report the incident to the BOQ even after she returned three days after leaving the hotel.

The national police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has filed criminal charges against five of Berjaya’s hotel staff, along with Chua, her parents, and her boyfriend for breaching quarantine protocols.

The incident, along with reports of hotels offering ‘absentee-quarantine’ packages to guests, compelled the government to do random spot checks on quarantine hotels to see if the facilities and quarantined persons are observing protocols.

This came as COVID-19 cases in the Philippines observed an exponential rise in recent days, which experts fear to have been driven by the highly virulent Omicron variant. Daily infections shot up to 17,220 on Thursday.

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