Belgian couple asks DOT to review rules

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines – A Belgian couple called on the Department of Tourism and local officials to review the hotel regulations, guidelines and security measure of various hotels in the Calabarzon region after they lost undetermined amount of cash and documents to an unidentified robber inside their hotel room in Makiling Height Subdivision, Barangay Lalakay, last month, here.

In a phone interview with The STAR, Minerva San Jose, 31 and her husband Jean Noel Gasselain, 29, Belgian citizen, both residing at Calle Congost 14, 4-3 Barcelona, Spain, expressed their disappointment over the lax security measures and the treatment they received from the hotel management during their stay at the Onsen Hotel in Los Baños, Laguna

“Our concern only is to improve the security precautions of the hotel so that other tourists who are planning to spend their vacation in the country would never experience the same,” Gasselain said.

She said her lawyer is now studying to file a formal complaint against the hotel management for negligence and lax security measures.

According to police report, the couple stayed for almost two weeks at the room 4B of Onsen Hotel and Restaurant when the robbery took place at around 5:20 to 7:30 a.m. Report showed the unidentified robber managed to gain entry inside the hotel room by climbing the unlocked window and once inside took away several items and various credit cards and passports, including their plane tickets.

Investigators said the Scene of the Crime Operatives team conducted a crime scene investigation for possible lifting of latent prints left by the robber.

The case is still under investigation while the suspect is scot-free, pending the result of the fingerprint examination.