Monday, March 19, 2007 Lamps reveal low-key summit ‘host’
SOME of the most significant activities in the 12th Asean summit last January took place inside a property of Portofino Resort Inc., though this came to light only as part of an inquiry on allegedly overpriced street lamps.
Four white pavilions were installed inside the Portofino property. A wooden bridge between two of these tents served as the site of a photo session for leaders of East and Southeast Asia.
Signing ceremonies and other meetings were done inside the tents, said Portofino chief executive officer Manuel Zamora.
A few months before the original summit schedule of December 2006, Zamora recalled, Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr. of the national organizing committee asked if they could use a vacant portion of Portofino’s property as a parking area, Zamora recalled.
Zamora agreed to let them use the property for free.
“I will just contribute it as part of our goodwill for the country and for Cebu,” he told Paynor.
Government teams leveled the vacant property, opened a portion of adjacent Shangri-la resort’s fence to provide access to it, enclosed the area with a double-layered wire fence and landscaped it.
Then, they installed the now-controversial street lamps—procured for at least P85,000 each. Zamora said he so admired the street lamps that he jokingly told his workers, “Siguro dapat yun ang gawin nating street lights dyan (We should use street lights like that for the resort).”
Former public works secretary Hermogenes Ebdane has confirmed it was he who ordered the improvements and the installation of street lamps within Portofino, as part of the summit preparations.
Despite the controversy, Zamora said he has no regrets his resort played an important role during the summit.
“Well, at least we were able to contribute,” he told Sun.Star Cebu. “I feel I’ve contributed something for the nation, maski small things. Yun lang ang masama dito, itong skandalong lumabas (It’s just too bad this scandal has developed).”
Portofino has written Paynor to request the government to remove all the things installed in their property, including the controversial street lamps. (OCP)
