SAN FABIAN – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo expressed no objection to the proposed turn-over of the government-owned San Fabian Resort Hotel by the Lingayen Gulf in the province of Pangasinan, to the municipal government here.

San Fabian Mayor Mojamito Libunao revealed that the President gave her initial nod to the desire of the municipal government to take over and operate the losing government resort when she came over to San Fabian last month.

Libunao however said this will all depend on the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to which the Philippine Tourism Authority board referred the matter.

Built by former President Ferdinand Marcos in the 80s as rest house for his family whenever they shuttled from Manila to Laoag and vice versa, the facility was one of the properties seized by the PCGG after Marcos left.

To make it earn, the nine-hectare complex by the scenic San Fabian Beach was placed under the supervision of the PTA which operated it as a hotel facility and as venues for seminars and workshops by various government agencies.

The facility is where lovers used to converge on a clear day to wait for and watch the sunset.

Libunao said Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., congressman of the fourth district, is supporting the initiative of his municipal government to take over the administration and management of the San Fabian Resort Hotel to prevent PTA’s continuous financial losses.

He said he has no doubt that the PTA will give in to the request of the municipal government because in the past, it earlier turned over the Hundred Islands National Park to the Alaminos City government, the multi-million peso Dagupan Poolside Restaurant and complex to the Dagupan City government and the Lingayen Resort Hotel to the provincial government of Pangasinan.

Both Arroyo and de Venecia said the move is in line with the government’s decentralization program ad consistent with the move to empower local government units in the countryside and make them earn.

To date, the tourism facility, composed of 18 dormitory-type rooms and 18 hotel-type rooms, aside from cottages, is losing in its operations, registering a very low 30 percent average occupancy rate in its rooms.

Libunao noted that with its very low earning which were not even enough to answer for its rehabilitation, the complex deteriorated over the years.

The mayor said the San Fabian municipal government seeks to put up a first-of-its kind restaurant-by-the-sea to serve sea foods.

They will invite pilgrims flocking every Sunday to the town of Manaoag to dine in before they go back home to Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines.

“Since there are 10,000 pilgrims visiting Manaoag on Sundays, we will organize a fleet of shuttle buses that will ferry them from Manaoag to San Fabian for them to sample freshly-cooked sea foods,” Libunao said.