INSTEAD of sitting down with the Mandaue City Government to iron out the kinks, Cenore Corp. announced that it would close Big Hotel on A. Seno St. in June.
It appears the firm has been affronted by the City’s move to introduce new terms to its lease.
The City wanted the hotel operator to submit a new lease offer by March 4 or it would implement the closure order it issued last Feb. 27.
“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 order and the news about the hotel closure,” Cenore president Roderick Ngo said in his letter to Mayor Luigi Quisumbing.
And so the staring contest has begun. The first one to blink will lose.
But why wait until June?
If Cenore believes it has been treated unfairly or unjustly, that it has become a victim of extortion, then why not close shop next month?
It said Travelbee, in June, will, among other things, “arrange the 30 days required filing of notice and submission of pertinent compliance requirements of the Department of Labor and Employment to cease operations and give 30 days prior notice under the Labor Code to its 300 employees and workers.”
Perhaps it is hoping the City Government will blink first. Three months is a long time. The eyes can get tired and watery from all that staring. Then again, anything can happen between now and then.
Perhaps Cenore is waiting for the outcome of the mayoral elections in May. After all, Quisumbing is running against Jonas Cortes, who signed the deed of assignment that Katumanan Hardware Inc. issued to Cenore in 2013 when he was still mayor.
If Cortes wins, then Cenore has nothing to worry about. It can well go about its business pretending that nothing has happened and that all of this is just a bad nightmare.
But that is under the assumption that Cortes will emerge victorious in May. What if the opposite happens? What then?
Will Cenore push through with its plans to shut down a multi-million investment because it felt slighted by the City?
The public will just have to wait and see, I guess.
In the meantime, the employees and workers of the Big Hotel will be left wondering whether they will still have a job in the second half of the year.
I know for a fact that Mr. Ngo is a nice guy. Heck, I used to hang out at Westpoint Inn almost every night for a decade or so.
So I kind of understand how he feels. After all, as one colleague put it, Mr. Ngo is just a victim who has been caught in a political crossfire.
But I do hope, for everybody’s sake, that this matter will be settled sooner than later.
A staring contest is not good for the eyes.