The Shangri-la: Celebrating a milestone

In 2004, she was Time magazine’s Readers’ Travel Choice Award as Favorite Resort in Asia. In 2005 she was CondÍ Nast Magazine’s Top 15 Resorts in Asia. This year, she was the ASEAN Tourism Forum’s ASEAN Green Hotel, while AsiaMoney’s Asia Pacific Travel Poll named her the Top Two Best Vacation Resort and Best Spa. Here at home she was also a Kalakbay Awardee. This is just a few of the awards that she has gotten through all the years she’s been in Cebu. I’m talking about Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa who is turning 15 years old tomorrow.

Last Monday, the Cebu media was given a culinary feast of Cebuano dishes at the Tides. The Shangri-La management requested my wife Jessica to get out of her retirement from the restaurant business to be their food consultant for Cebuano dishes because when it comes to food, the Shangri-La offers the best that your taste buds can handle.

The Shang’s 15th anniversary celebration kicked off last Monday when they featured an art exhibit at the main lobby of the renowned Cebuano painters, who painted scenes in and around the Shangri-La where 50% of the proceeds of the sale of the paintings, will go to charity. No doubt, the management and staff of Shangri-La take their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) very seriously. In the past six years they have been supporting the “Batang Opon” helping the indigent children of Lapu-Lapu City in their “Lugawan Para Sa Kabataan” feeding program for all the Saturdays of October. It is the Shang’s way of giving back to the people of Mactan.

Indeed, the Shangri-La’s opening in Mactan put Cebu on the map of the mainstream tourism world, hence it gave Cebu the opportunity to host many international events, from the Ms. Universe swimsuit competition in 1994 to the Asia Pacific Economic Council (APEC) meeting and of course the 14th ASEAN Leaders’ Summit in 2007.

Next week, Cebu plays host to the 6th International Tourism Forum for Parliamentarians and Local Authorities under the auspices of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNTWO) on Oct.21-25, 2008 that will be held at the Shangri-La’s “Marquee”. The participants to this international forum are either members of parliament or members of Congress or local government officials from the 60-plus nations.

That the opening of the Shangri-La in Cebu put us in the world map is best exemplified when the Shangri-La group advertises in CNN and other international media outlets because Cebu always gets into their ads! This is why we Cebuanos are proud to have the Shangri-La as part of Cebu’s economic success story. Congratulations to the management and staff of the Shangri-La now led by Mr. Raymond Bragg. Cheers and champagne wishes and more success to the Shangri-La in Cebu!

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The Court of Appeals (CA) Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez Jr. was in Cebu the other day to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the CA here in Cebu. I was invited to the inauguration of the CA four years ago and we were very happy that finally we had our own Appellate Court here so that cases on appeal would now be done in Cebu. That gave us hope that the presence of the CA in Cebu would speed up the snail’s paced Justice our people have been clamoring. Unfortunately that didn’t materialize. Worse, we only heard more rumors of en banc corruption happening right within our midst. These rumors came out from Manila-based newspaper columnists and correspondents.

Then a couple of months ago, the CA took a giant leap backward at the height of the Meralco-GSIS controversy when the CA’s Special 9th Division composed of Justice Jose Sabio Jr., Myrna Dimaranan Vidal and Vicente Roxas heard this case. Then Justice Sabio called a presscon to tell the whole nation that an emissary from the Lopez Family bribed him with P10 million. The rest is now Legal History and Justice Vicente Roxas was booted out of the CA, while Justice Sabio was suspended.

In his speech, Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez Jr. pointed out that the CA wants to restore its integrity and prove its efficiency despite all the bad publicity. He pointed out, “Despite the painful and unpleasant experience, we will still stand with the issues and overcome it and we will show to them the real nature of the Court of Appeals, no matter how painful the battle will be. We are scarred, but fully healed and strengthened.” While these are mere words, what we would like to see from the CA is honesty and integrity in their actions.