SPDA revives Marawi hotel

COTABATO CITY — After its near-closure last year due to heavy losses, the historic Marawi Resort Hotel, a symbolic landmark and the lone hotel in Marawi City, is now recovering, rescued from bankruptcy by the Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA).

Datu Zamzamin Ampatuan, the new SPDA administrator, said the hotel has been earning a monthly income of P600,000 since late last year.

The hotel, regarded as symbol of the traditional Maranaw hospitality, was jointly built by the SPDA and the Ayala Foundation inside the vast compound of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City in the 1970s.

To save the hotel from bankruptcy, the SPDA reorganized its management, installing a Maranaw entrepreneur, lawyer Najib Sinarimbo, as its new caretaker. — J. Unson