Zoilo ‘Bingo’ Dejaresco III l May 29, 2024 l Business Mirror
Major local and global hospitality chains have taken an interest in setting up shop in Bohol, which is blessed with fine sand and crystal-blue waters, especially in the towns of Panglao and Anda.
JW Marriot, which is the leader in terms of the number of hotel rooms, has started to construct its five-star resort and spa on Panglao island, in partnership with Cebu’s Apple One Group and scheduled for inauguration in 2026. Meanwhile, the Radisson Hotel Group’s Regency Grand Paradise Resort Bohol is set to open in 2025 on a three-hectare property with more than 550 suites offering forest and lake views.
Homegrown conglomerate Alturas Group of Companies owned by the family of Marlito Uy is launching a P25-billion mixed-used development in Panglao with six hotels and resorts, a convention center, a medical facility, residential and retail areas on a 50-hectare property. This is a flagship project of the government’s Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority or TIEZA.
Groundbreaking will also soon happen in Tagbilaran City for the opening of Shoemart, the country’s biggest department store and supermarket by 2026.
Meantime, the 10-hectare city lot that used to house the old Bohol airport will soon be developed into a special economic zone with the endorsement of the provincial government. The Bohol Panglao International Airport now sits closer to the beach area in Panglao which will have an additional P7-billion expansion in the next three years. The operations will shortly be transferred from the Civil Aeronautics Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to the Aboitiz Group, the winning bidder.
Tourism is Bohol’s flagship industry which attracted 1 million visitors last year—approaching nearly the pre-pandemic levels (40 percent are foreigners). The airport now serves 11 domestic flights and three direct flights from Korea daily.
According to PLt. Col. of the Bohol Provincial Police Office, Bohol has been declared one of the “safest provinces in the country” based on the number of drug-free barangays (65 percent). Early this year, a combined team of the army and Philippine National Police likewise vanquished the last remnants of a ragtag team of New People’s Army (NPAs) in Bilar town which could lead to a categorization of the province as totally “insurgency-free.”
By December, Bohol’s first drug rehabilitation center named Bohol Drug Rehabilitation and Recovery Center will open in the town of Cortes in coordination with Dr. Ben Vista, presently a consultant of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine of the University of the Philippines Philippine General Hospital.
Meanwhile, Bohol’s and perhaps one of the country’s longest-running community newspapers The Bohol Chronicle celebrated its 70th anniversary as a weekly last May 16 at The Bohol Tropics Resort. Guest speaker was Manuel Mogato, a 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner for International Reporting and a 2017 McLuhan Fellow in London.
Mogato said surveys show that Filipinos are often gullible and fall easy prey to fake news and misinformation. He warned citizens of troll disinformation agents who target legitimate journalists to legitimize false information.
He mentioned about a model called the “Trumpet of Application” which starts with false information on an obscure website while unsuspecting people will pick it up and pass it on messaging platforms like Viber, Messenger, Signal, What’s Up, and Telegram.
When these postings become viral, the mainstream media which Mogato calls the “legacy media” picks them up, gaining legitimacy.
The Bohol Chronicle was founded by Zoilo D. Dejaresco Jr., former chairman of the Philippine Press Institute (after the demise of Don Chino Roces) on May 16, 1954. Save for the week immediately after the declaration of Martial Law, the paper has not missed publishing its weekly issues in the past 70 years.
The Bohol Chronicle is now run by the second generation led by Zoilo “Bingo” P. Dejaresco III (Editor in Chief) and Peter P. Dejaresco (Associate Editor).
*** The author, a former banker, is a financial consultant, media practitioner, and author. He is a Life and Media member of Finex. His views here, however, are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of BusinessMirror. Comments may be sent to dejarescobingo@yahoo.com. Photo from Pinterest.