Gatchalian reopens hotel in Davao City

DAVAO CITY — The Wellex Group of Companies, owned by "plastics king" William Gat—chalian, is set to reopen tomorrow the Waterfront Davao Insular Hotel which it closed more than six months ago due to low occupancy.

The management of the hotel, considered one of the city’s landmarks, said only 50 of the hotel’s 200 rooms though will be available for tomorrow’s soft reopening, although all function rooms and restaurants and bars will be open.

Renovation and refurbishing work is still ongoing in the other rooms.

The Wellex Group suspended operations of the hotel last November, only eight months after it acquired the property from the Zobel de Ayalas in December 1999.

Speculations were rife last year that Gatchalian bought the hotel using half of the P1.2 billion which former President Joseph Estrada lent to the Wellex Group from the controversial Jose Velarde account in the Equitable-PCIBank.

Interestingly, the Waterfront Davao Insular Hotel was closed at the height of the impeachment trial against Estrada when inquiries into the business transactions of the former President and his cohorts mounted.

However, a close associate of Gatchalian told The STAR that Estrada had nothing to do with the purchase of the hotel.

The money which Gatchalian used in buying Insular, he said on condition of anonymity, was part of the proceeds from the sale of properties of the Wellex Group.

"Really, Estrada had nothing to do with the purchase of the hotel. It was a business transaction of the Gatchalians alone," the source said.