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RP property in New York multiplied 5x in 5 years
Manhattan property experts informed us that the value of properties in New York had gone up five times since 2000. So it’s a good thing that we still own the Philippine Center on Fifth Avenue, which is a remaining source of pride for the four million Filipinos living in the United States. If our present Washington Ambassador Albert Del Rosario had his way a couple of years ago, when he took over the Washington DC post, he would have sold this prime real estate property. Luckily, Del Rosario (whose real profession is an insurance agent) received so much flak and opposition when people got wind of the proposal that he was forced to drop this smart idea. This bright proposal was ostensibly to raise money because we could not afford to maintain the building. However, observers allegedly claimed that when Del Rosario made the proposal, he was thinking more like an insurance agent and less like an Ambassador. Even foreign diplomats based in the Philippines were so astounded when they heard of the idea and thought it unthinkable that the Philippines would even think about selling its New York property. Those who know about NY prime real estate had warned that once such a property is sold, chances are the government will never have the opportunity to buy one like it. After 9-11, people were saying that New York properties would experience a slump. They were dead wrong. Now it has even gone up five times and is still going up. It was a crazy proposal to sell it but let us thank Providence that enough concerned people were able to stop another Roponggi fastbreak from happening.
Finally, some good news. The government’s state pension fund apparently took to heart President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Administrative Order 103 because it managed to save some P1.085 billion in 2004. According to Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president and general manager Winston Garcia, the hefty amount saved came about because of an Office Order directing all GSIS group heads to implement a compulsory 20 percent cut on all controllable expenses and 10 percent reduction in all non-controllable expenses. AO 103, which was issued in August last year, directed all government agencies to conduct austerity measures to stem the growing budget deficit in government. Garcia said GSIS’s austerity measures were implemented last September, surpassing the initial target of P737.285 million by more than P300 million. Earlier, GSIS had also announced that P159,723.44 from Garcia’s monthly salary was being deducted and deposited in a special bank account for disposal by the government. This was in reply to Iloilo Rep. Rolex Suplico’s statement that Garcia "did not cut his pay by P160,000 contrary to his press release made last September 2004." The deductions are reportedly not reflected in Garcia’s pay slips because he personally makes the deductions and deposits them to a special bank account for the government to decide what to do with it.
Our Spyring reported about the hazardous underground parking and the putrid smell of this grand hotel somewhere in Manila. Customers reportedly have a difficult time locating the entrance to the underground parking facilities and if they do, they are faced with a steep incline that only four-wheel drives can ascend. The two-level parking is cramped and if customers manage to find parking space, don’t waste your time looking for an elevator that would lead you to the lobby because there are none that function properly. You are directed to a stairway instead, and you have to gingerly walk through a narrow passage with 8-inch thick pipes running through the middle of the stairs. Once guests find their way through the maze, they are greeted by the sickening stench of raw sewage that could make even those with strong stomachs retch. The hotel management as well as the designers apparently gave little or no thought to the underground facilities, said the Eye-Spy, because unfinished concrete, debris and even drainage channels litter the flooring. If hotel guests are lucky enough to survive that, then they have to go through a narrow and bending exit that only small, compact cars can navigate. A pity, because the restaurant café reportedly offers scrumptious meals but the market-like stench underground is turning guests off.
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