BAUKO, Mountain Province– The ongoing repair and improvement of the historic Mount Data Hotel will be completed by March as additional accommodation for visitors to the various tourist destinations around the province and nearby provinces once tourism-related activities will be allowed by the provincial and municipal inter-agency task forces on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
Mayor Abraham B. Akilit reported there were some delays encountered by the contractor in the ongoing repair and improvement of the hotel since the project started last August, thus, the deadline for the completion of the project was moved from December last year to March this year.
He said that the completion of the repair and improvement of the hotel will help entice prospective visitors to spend a night or two in the accommodation establishment to help in the possible revival of the local tourism industry and other-related businesses and help the economy recover from the serious negative effects of the pandemic.
Earlier, Mayor Akilit sourced out from the State-run Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) some P36 million to repair and improve the historic hotel after this was closed when the provincial government returned to the tourism department the management and operation of the same in February 2016 because of reported losses.
He disclosed that the municipal government will be proposing to TIEZA to turnover to the same the management and operation of the accommodation establishment to allow the municipality to have an economic enterprise for the generation of resources to be used in the implementation of priority development projects and enhance the delivery of basic services to the people living in the town’s 22 barangays.
According to him, the municipal government wants to maximize the use of the Mount Data Hotel to aggressively promote the existing tourist spots in the locality so that visitors will be convinced to stay and move around the municipality and help revive the economy once the opening of the tourism industry will be allowed.
The Mount Data Hotel served as the venue for the signing of the Mount Data peace agreement between former President Corazon C. Aquino representing the Philippine government and the late rebel priest Conrado Balweg of the Cordillera Bodong Administration–Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CBA-CPLA) on September 13, 1986.
The historic peace agreement resulted to the subsequent issuance of Executive Order (EO) No. 220 by former President Aquino on July 15, 1987 leading to the creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) to administer the affairs of the government in the region, accelerate the socio-economic development of the region, and eventually to prepare the region for autonomy.
The provincial government managed and operated the Mount Data Hotel from 2006 to early 2016 but the same was returned to TIEZA due to losses incurred during the duration of the aforesaid period.
By HENT
