Palayan star quality hotel plan takes off

PALAYAN City – An income-generating project conceptualized by Gov. Tomas N. Joson III has recently taken off with a cornerstone-laying during the groundbreaking ceremonies for the construction of the Nueva Ecija Friendship Hotel in this capital city.

Joson said that the hotel under construction would stand inside the walled compound of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines in Barangay Singalat, not too far away from the provincial capitol.

The provincial chief executive convinced the City Mayor, Lorelie Fajardo, and Barangay officials to invest in the said hotel that is designed to have 60 rooms suitable for overnight seminars and workshops of local government units.

He also disclosed that the construction of villas in the periphery of the hotel complex is left to the discretion of Nueva Ecija mayors provided they conform to the master plan submitted that foresees the development of the area into a tourist attraction.

"Being put in place now is the mechanism that would accommodate the entry of private investors knowledgeable in the operation of star quality hotels so that eventually management of the same would be entrusted to them," Joson said.

Joson stressed that money-making ventures that simultaneously propel real estate development in areas of their province still to be touched by commercial development deserve immediate attention.

He then volunteered that his provincial stewardship that has been reelected to a third and final term would coordinate closely with Tourism Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan and Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) General Manager Robert Dean Barbers.