MikeLigalig.com

By Boy Guingguing
BGLante
Bohol Sunday Post

It was unfortunate for a world class resort like the Eskaya Beach Resort & Spa to have been the object of bad publicity the past week.

But that is going ahead of the story. First the good news.

The good news was that the posh resort owned by the Lims was where President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her presidential guards stayed overnight in a recent trip to Bohol.

A little birdie told this Bglante that during a program held in barangay Tawala, the President was quoted as saying that she was quartered during her "private time" in a world class resort. And that is the Eskaya Beach Resort and Spa.

For the resort and its owners it was a propaganda mouthful. Coming as it did from no less than the highest official of the country, what else would you consider that complimentary remarks other than being a marketing coup?

But make no mistake. This is no brief of the new resort. We are just being generous of a lavish praise due it.

But the main beef of this thesis is all about the bad publicity generated by the resort as a result of last week's robbery incident.

We are taking the cudgels for the resort because as a Boholano we feel it is our duty to protect the interest of those who are willing to sink millions of pesos to build a world class resort like the Eskaya. In fact, we are enamored with the fact that so many investors are putting where their investment mouths are in Panglao because they are attracted to the natural allure of the island.

It was disheartening to note that Eskaya after all the good raves it got was in the news allegedly because it was used as the sanctuary of some of the robbery suspects who pulled off the Bank of Commerce robbery.

If it was meant to be a joke, then we can say that it was a cruel one.

Whoever peddled the lies that the robbery suspects checked in at the Eskaya must have an axe to grind against the resort owner.

The bad publicity was in the form of a news story that appeared in the Sun Star-Cebu in its August 30 issue.

According to the resort's legal counsel, Alexander Lim, Sun Star published a news item showing that the robbers checked in at the beach resort.

Nothing is farther from the truth, Lim contended.

He said police records showed that the robbers were billeted at the Dumaluan Beach Resort in Bolod, Panglao and not at the Eskaya.

Lim also pinpointed Station DYRD as the source of the Sun Star story. But in a check with Peter Dejaresco, DYRD station manager, he clarified that he can say with a straight face that nothing negative came out from their twin media outfits (DYRD and Bohol Chronicle) about Eskaya being the check-in quarters of the rob suspects.

In our own verification process, we found nothing in the robbery story of the Bohol Chronicle last Wednesday showing that Eskaya was mentioned in the incident.

If indeed, the negative story did see print, we hope that the Sun Star editors will rectify the same and make the necessary correction.

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