Hotelier offers 5 hotels for PUI, PUM use

A Chinese-Filipno businessman from Bicol region who owns the chain of Oriental Hotels in the country has offered the use of five of his hotels as isolation facilities for persons under investigations (PUI), persons under monitoring (PUM) and for the returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW),who are required to undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine period upon arrival in the country as part of enhanced community quarantine measures.

Wilbert Te Lee, chairman of The Oriental Hotels and Resorts Group, on Friday, April 10 offered to the government “gratis et amore” the Oriental Hotels in Legaspi City, Tagaytay City, Tacloban City and the two in Mariveles, Bataan for use as quarantine facilities.

Lee, a Bicolano from Sorsogon provinces, in a statement said “We truly are all together in this war against Covid-19. We cannot just sit down and watch. We have to contribute to the government’s efforts and protect, first and foremost, our medical front liners, otherwise who will help us?”

Aside from offering his hotels for free, Lee, on Apr. 11 called on his fellow hotel owners to also follow his gesture by offering their hotels as isolation facilities for PUM, PUI and returning OFW.

“We have converted our biggest and most luxurious hotels as quarantine facilities for PUI and those with mild symptoms, while the rest are now being used as housing facilities for medical frontliners,” Lee said.

He added that while others might say “wala na ngang kita sa hotel, gagastos pa! My response to that statement is this, Yes. Tama sila. Pero mas walang dadating na kita kung hindi natin pagtutulungan na maayos at matapos na agad ang krisis na ito. This is a bitter pill that all hotel owners have to swallow for now.”

Lee said that hotel industry is the most hard hit or affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. “Unity and cooperation with the government efforts to flatten the curb are very much needed to survive this trying times.”