CEBU – About 300 workers of Big Hotel, a three-start hotel in Mandaue City, Cebu, may lose their jobs after the hotel management decided to close the hotel instead of entering a new lease agreement with the City Government.
The Mandaue City government earlier ordered the closure of the hotel for their failure to secure business permits and for building on land under a deed of assignment said to be irregular.
“The Cenore board has nothing to put on the table for discussion regarding the new lease terms that the City of Mandaue has demanded on the Contract of Lease of Lot 1-K-B-3,” Cenore president Roderick Ngo said in a letter to Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing.
Ngo said the board directed the Big Hotel management operator, Travelbee Management Corp., to close the hotel in three months.
In three months Travelbee will arrange the 30 days required filing of notice and submission of pertinent compliance requirements of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) to cease operations; give 30 days prior notice under the Labor Code to its 300 employees and workers; give 30 days to prepare the amount for separation pay of employees and workers; arrange payment of suppliers, utilities and other payables; negotiate and arrange for realignment of loans with banks.
“Cenore believes that the bleeding from Travelbee’s hotel operations of Big Hotel has to be stopped, taking into account the cancellations of hotel bookings, programs and events and recorded daily loss of P3 million caused by the notice of closure and the news about the hotel closure,” Ngo said.
Cenore maintained that the contract of lease with the City of Mandaue was legal and valid.
“It is both legally binding and morally upright that Cenore will defend this matter when the day comes that this will rest in the appropriate forum,” he said.
Cenore’s decision surprised the City Government, said Quisumbing’s executive staff, Atty. Elaine Bathan.
Bathan said the city will now repossess the lot and the warehouse and extend whatever assistance to the hotel for a smooth turnover.
