BAUKO, Mountain Province – The State-owned Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) completed the upgrading of the historic Mount Data hotel to ensure its operation once the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases will allow the resumption of tourism-related activities in the different parts of the country.
Mayor Abraham B. Akilit stated that he meets with TIEZA officials who recently conducted an inspection on the completed works in the hotel and that its inauguration is being scheduled possibly by September.
He added that TIEZA will manage the hotel but he requested that the manpower requirements should come from the municipality to help provide jobs for qualified residents and additional sources of livelihood in the locality.
The local chief executive claimed there will be future consultations with the TIEZA, concerned government agencies and the local government to ascertain the smooth resumption of the hotel’s operation in the coming months.
Earlier, the TIEZA earmarked some P36 million to rehabilitate and upgrade the historic Mount Data hotel after it took over its management from the provincial government several years ago.
The implementation of the upgrading works started in August last year and was supposed to be completed last March but the works were extended until last May.
According to him, TIEZA will bid out the furniture and other fixtures for the hotel prior to its scheduled operation to ensure that these are ready in time for the visitors use once operations resume.
The municipal mayor stipulated that the municipal government will reiterate its previous request for the turnover of the management and operation of the hotel from.
The Mount Data hotel served as the venue of the historic signing of the peace agreement between the Philippine government under the leadership of former President Corazon c. Aquino and the Cordillera Bodong Administration–Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CBA-CPLA) headed by former rebel priest Conrado Balweg last September 13, 1986.
The formal peace agreement was an offshoot of the negotiations conducted by the government peace panel and the former armed group which commenced right after the EDSA People Power Revolution.
After the signing of the peace agreement, President Aquino issued Executive Order (EO) No. 220 that created the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) that brought together the provinces of Abra, Benguet, Mountain Province and Baguio City from Region I and the provinces of Ifugao and Kalinga-Apayao from Region II on July 15, 1987.
The CAR, which is a special temporary administrative region, was tasked to administer the affairs of the government in the region, accelerate the socio-economic development of the region and prepare the region for autonomy. By HENT
