Apo View owners block hotel’s sale

DAVAO CITY — Owners of the Apo View Hotel, considered the country’s oldest and truly Filipino-owned hotel, are blocking the foreclosure and sale of the property on Nov. 7.

The family of Mariano Pamintuan Jr., Apo View’s president and general manager, has vehemently objected to the move and is planning to file a multimillion-peso damage suit and initiate contempt proceedings against the provincial sheriff’s office.

The Pamintuans, represented by lawyer Jesus Zozobrado, are demanding the withdrawal and cancellation of the notice of extra-judicial sale on the property.

They insisted that they had been religiously paying their loan obligations since June 16, 1997, paying a total of P31,650,000, until the bank made them sign two promissory notes which, they claimed, changed the terms and conditions of their loan.

The promissory notes, they alleged, ballooned the original loan from P211 million to over P330 million.

Apo View has undergone several renovations since it was built 50 years ago.

It enjoyed brisk business in the late 1990s. In 1997, it secured a P221-million loan from Banco Filipino to fund its renovation and expansion plans. The 9,673 square meter property where the hotel stands was used as collateral.