Most of us read the email circulated by Dr Abigail Fernandez-Bautista about the hotel room thefts and management disregard at Vista Marina Hotel in waterfront road Subic Freeport followed by the subsequent email from the hotel that was an attempt to have us believe that this was an isolated incident and that they acted with honour.
We have learnt the hard way that Vista Marina’s email was merely a publicity smoke screen and that thefts of guests property not only remains a regular occurrence but that the staff and management still act in exactly the same slimy way as was described in the email of Dr Fernandez-Bautista.
Early in the morning on September 8th, 2008 some friends of my wife arrived from overseas and the hotel that I had booked for them had just sprayed for cockroaches so due to the smell they moved to Vista Marina Hotel without my knowledge.
On that evening we all went out for dinner and drinks. When my wife and I picked up our friends my wife and I went up to their room and my wife witnessed that our friends left their high end cell phone sitting on the table next to the TV. This fact we are all certain about. We left the hotel to go out at approximately 7:30pm.
By 9.30pm one of our friends called the cell phone of my friend and it was turned off, suggesting the phone was taken from the room between 7.30pm and 9.30pm
We dropped my friends back to the hotel later that evening and they went straight to sleep, the following morning they realised that the phone was missing, of course they checked everywhere including moving furniture in case it had been knocked off the table but it was no longer in the room. At about 11am they spoke to the hotel management, receiving a sarcastic and uncooperative response so when they advised us of the theft around 12:30 lunchtime my wife called the SBMA Police.
The manager showed us a monitor that was supposedly the CCTV footage of that night, however as the CCTV only makes a recording when there is movement there is no way of knowing it the system is started, stopped, paused or if there is movement outside the movement area. The CCTV also does not cover the balcony doors where it is possible to go from balcony to balcony to enter the rooms.
When the SMBA Police where at the Vista Marina Hotel in the presence of the manager my friend asked “do guests in this hotel get robbed often?” all the SBMA Police and the manager just looked down at the ground and did not say a word, in this case silence was a strong expression of the problems that are still occurring in that hotel. Unfortunately my friends had never heard of the famous wedding day robbery or the appalling record of the Vista Marina Hotel. They thought that as the hotel was inside the SBMA controlled area it was safe with a level of protection
When waiting for the boat to Grande Island, a woman who seemed to be the manager of the ferry terminal, told my friends that the same thing had happened 3 days earlier, and there was nothing on the CCTV that time either. She also told us that she had heard this happens once a week. If this is true why isn’t SBMA acting to close down this haven of crime, why does SBMA not uphold the safe image of the Subic Freeport?
When my friends came back from the Grande Island they filed a police complaint, and again went to see the hotel manager to ask if the hotel was going to do anything, unfortunately they were again met with sarcasm and continued suppression of information or the ability to speak with the owner.
The manager had clearly been through this situation a number of times. He was prepared with a smart answer for everything rehearsed and delivered with a really annoying smarmy smile.
Part of the manager’s defence was that he claimed that the hotel does not clean the rooms unless requested. However, my friend’s room was spotless after they had been out for the day. The rooms were cleared, bed made, and new towels given. So why does the manager claim that they don’t makeup rooms that have guests when they do? Who is he trying to protect?
A week after the thefts we wrote to the management of Vista Marina Hotel who didn’t answer, a week later we wrote again questioning there care for customers and they wrote back with a letter signed only “The Management”, we feel concerned that the owners or “management” act in such a guilty way that they need to hide their identity. Imagine if I was to check into this hotel and insist on registering as “The Guest”.
In their letter they said that they were not settling the matter because my friend had involved the Police. I checked the Police report and the police report was filed three days after the incident was reported to the management, so let’s be clear, they had three days to settle this before the robbery was formalized to the police and we gave them a further two weeks of emails to settle the matter before going public. They continue to hide their identity, not compensate the guests and act with contempt to the unsuspecting public as well as SBMA.
To add insult to injury my friends have now discovered extra charges in fact they even charged the rooms to their credit cards twice. It seems when they target you they go for all they can.
Enough is enough, when you search in Google or Yahoo about Subic Bay you come up with dozens of stories of people getting their belongings stolen from their rooms and extra charges billed to their credit cards ONLY in the Vista Marina. Vista Marina is the ONLY hotel with this disgraceful public reputation it’s time for the SBMA to terminate the lease of these undesirables who are dragging down the reputation of Subic.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Original Letter of Dr. Abigail Fernandez-Bautista
NEWLY WED ROBBED INSIDE THE VISTA MARINA RESORT IN SUBIC
May 13, 2008
Dear Mr./Ms. Editor,
Greetings of Peace! I am Dr. Abigail Fernandez-Bautista, 31 years old, a dentist and resident of San Narciso, Zambales. I got married to Mr. Dax Baustista, three days ago at the chapel of San Roque inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. I should have been happy and at peace by now that I finally married the man of my dreams. I shouldhave been spending days with him, right now, talking about our future children and planning our lives. ButI am not. I am angry. I am in pain.
I have been sleepless the past nights because the memory of what happened to us always comes back to me.And the thought that I and my husband will forever remember this unfortunate event, every single year ofour anniversary, brings me great distress and anxiety. After months of planning and anticipation, we wereable to book ourselves and our families and guests a place at Vista Marina Hotel and Resort located at Blk3 Lot 2, Moonbay Marina Area, Waterfront Road, SubicBay Freeport Zone. We were so relieved that the hotelhas everything we were thinking of to realize a dream wedding that turned catastrophic for us.
Vista Marina, through its website and brochure, promised us this: You've always dreamed about having a beautifulwedding. Make this very special event an unforgettable experience at Vista Marina Hotel & Resort. Theresort's picturesque setting at the pool side is truly the ideal place for this memorable occasion. As youwork closely with our certified wedding planner, you'll choose from several customized wedding packagesand services, which will satisfy your every wish and create the most unforgettable day.
What we never realized was that "memorable experience and unforgettable day" was something that would fill us with so much anger, so much pain. We were wed on May 10, 2008 at 6:30 in the evening. Wethen proceeded with our relatives and guests to have dinner at around 9 at the wedding banquet of Vista Marina. The wedding program ended at around 11 pm. We returned to our room, 207, and found that ourbelongings had been suspiciously disarranged. We frantically went over our stuff and found that myhusband's laptop was missing. We had been robbed!
When we informed our parents about the incident, we also found out that our relative, Mrs. Butch was crying because her cell phone and her wallet with cash of about P20,000.00, her credit and ATM cards were stolen too. We panicked and got so frightened that this incident happened inside the hotel premises that promised security and comfort to us and our guests. We immediately reported the incidents at the front deskof the hotel lobby.
Our frustration and anxiety only got worse when we were coldly treated by the night shift and security supervisor, Mr. Gener Pangan. We never saw alarm nor concern from him. He acted as if everything that had happened that night was routineprocedure to them. He never offered words of assurance that they will do everything to get our belongings back. We were treated with ominous and disturbing silence. They did not call the SBMA police immediately for assistance. We had to wait for three hours for the hotel staff to finish its own "operation" before they called the police in. I don't know what's the SOP in cases of hotel robberies but three hours of wait could not help us think that evidence could have been contaminated especially if done without the presence of the proper authorities.
We also approached the operations manager of the hotel, Mr.. Anthony Bacunawa, who, though he was morecooperative, could say nothing more than "sorry" and "I understand your situation." We wanted to talk to the owner of the hotel since the time of the incident but Mr. Bacunawa was insistent that the hotel owner, who is Korean, would not want to talk to us.
This was when our suspicion grew and our anger heightened. We were the aggrieved party, we were the victims of a crime that should not have happened had the security been tight and properly enforced. But it seems that we can only talk to the walls. We were not able to sleep that night mulling over how could this happen to us, and on the night of our wedding.. When it was clear that we would not be seeing justice that we deserve, we decided to politely ask some of the hotel guests tocheck their belongings before they leave fearing that the same things may have happened to them without themknowing it.
To our surprise, three hotel patrons, who are not members of our wedding guests, volunteered information that their door was opened by a suspicious woman who also had the same key to their room. The woman exclaimed, "Ay may tao pala." And she briskly left. Also, one of our principal sponsors found out in the morning that their door was ajar when his wife swore that she made sure that she locked the door before she and her children went to bed.
Early in the morning of May 10, we asked assistance from the front desk to help us open the safety vault inside our room because the key given to us could not open it. The receptionist sent one of the bellboys up for assistance but still the vault would not budge. My husband and I decided that we would no longer use the vault. At the time of our discovery of the robberies, we found out that the vault was already open. We wanted to ask the bellboy who brought up a spare key how did this happen. My mother has a vague remembrance of his face so she went to the front desk to ask if the hotel kept I.D. pictures of its staff, Mr. Pangan flatly refused her request saying, "We could not dothat because it's administrative policy." When we asked why, he merely shrugged, "We want to protect our employees." I thought we were the ones who needed protection there.
After almost thirteen hours of futile request to the operations manager to let us talk to the owner of the hotel we were ready to leave and settle our accounts. The owner suddenly appeared and went straight to his office. We wanted to talk to him, just to let him know of some of the irregularities that we experienced inside his hotel. The hotel staff refused our request.
They finally yielded when my father-in-law insisted to talk to him. We were made to wait interminably. My father-in-law went directly to the administrative office and politely requested that he be given a few minutes to talk to the owner. A family friend, Bro. Noel Bava, SJ went in with my father-in-law. We were hoping that the Korean owner would be more cooperativeand helpful this time. But he was stubborn and refused to take responsibility over the incident. He kept on telling us that it was our fault that our belongings got stolen. And as owners of these belongings, we were the ones responsible for our things. That it was not the responsibility of the hotel to keep an eye on our stuff. That even in our own house, we are not 100%safe. That it is the responsibility of the government of the Philippines to provide security to its citizens after all, this is our country.
When my father-in-law asked for his name, he said no, he is not going to give it. He stood up, called security, told his staff to call the police and take my father-in-law and Bro. Bava out of his office immediately.
It is not really the laptop or the money that we were after. We could easily have them replaced. But the memories that this sad and lamentable incident that happened on the day of my wedding and the fact that it will make its mark on us forever, the refusal of the hotel administration to accept responsibility and pay for it, the shabby treatment that we received from thehotel owner, a Korean, a foreigner doing business on our soil, and staff that would do anything to keep their boss blameless and free of responsibility of the crime done to us, this we could not accept.
We are aghast that such business, whom we have also learned from the Intelligence and Investigation Officeof SBMA, had a history of robberies the past months and was requested to put up security cameras and additional locks on their rooms, is allowed to continue operating inside Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
We asked your good office if you could help us inform your readers about this incident so that the same things may not happen to them. We would also appreciate if you could run a follow up article or news story on this.
Thank you very much and God bless.
Respectfully yours,Dr. Abigail Fernandez-Bautista, DMD
May 13, 2008
Dear Mr./Ms. Editor,
Greetings of Peace! I am Dr. Abigail Fernandez-Bautista, 31 years old, a dentist and resident of San Narciso, Zambales. I got married to Mr. Dax Baustista, three days ago at the chapel of San Roque inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. I should have been happy and at peace by now that I finally married the man of my dreams. I shouldhave been spending days with him, right now, talking about our future children and planning our lives. ButI am not. I am angry. I am in pain.
I have been sleepless the past nights because the memory of what happened to us always comes back to me.And the thought that I and my husband will forever remember this unfortunate event, every single year ofour anniversary, brings me great distress and anxiety. After months of planning and anticipation, we wereable to book ourselves and our families and guests a place at Vista Marina Hotel and Resort located at Blk3 Lot 2, Moonbay Marina Area, Waterfront Road, SubicBay Freeport Zone. We were so relieved that the hotelhas everything we were thinking of to realize a dream wedding that turned catastrophic for us.
Vista Marina, through its website and brochure, promised us this: You've always dreamed about having a beautifulwedding. Make this very special event an unforgettable experience at Vista Marina Hotel & Resort. Theresort's picturesque setting at the pool side is truly the ideal place for this memorable occasion. As youwork closely with our certified wedding planner, you'll choose from several customized wedding packagesand services, which will satisfy your every wish and create the most unforgettable day.
What we never realized was that "memorable experience and unforgettable day" was something that would fill us with so much anger, so much pain. We were wed on May 10, 2008 at 6:30 in the evening. Wethen proceeded with our relatives and guests to have dinner at around 9 at the wedding banquet of Vista Marina. The wedding program ended at around 11 pm. We returned to our room, 207, and found that ourbelongings had been suspiciously disarranged. We frantically went over our stuff and found that myhusband's laptop was missing. We had been robbed!
When we informed our parents about the incident, we also found out that our relative, Mrs. Butch was crying because her cell phone and her wallet with cash of about P20,000.00, her credit and ATM cards were stolen too. We panicked and got so frightened that this incident happened inside the hotel premises that promised security and comfort to us and our guests. We immediately reported the incidents at the front deskof the hotel lobby.
Our frustration and anxiety only got worse when we were coldly treated by the night shift and security supervisor, Mr. Gener Pangan. We never saw alarm nor concern from him. He acted as if everything that had happened that night was routineprocedure to them. He never offered words of assurance that they will do everything to get our belongings back. We were treated with ominous and disturbing silence. They did not call the SBMA police immediately for assistance. We had to wait for three hours for the hotel staff to finish its own "operation" before they called the police in. I don't know what's the SOP in cases of hotel robberies but three hours of wait could not help us think that evidence could have been contaminated especially if done without the presence of the proper authorities.
We also approached the operations manager of the hotel, Mr.. Anthony Bacunawa, who, though he was morecooperative, could say nothing more than "sorry" and "I understand your situation." We wanted to talk to the owner of the hotel since the time of the incident but Mr. Bacunawa was insistent that the hotel owner, who is Korean, would not want to talk to us.
This was when our suspicion grew and our anger heightened. We were the aggrieved party, we were the victims of a crime that should not have happened had the security been tight and properly enforced. But it seems that we can only talk to the walls. We were not able to sleep that night mulling over how could this happen to us, and on the night of our wedding.. When it was clear that we would not be seeing justice that we deserve, we decided to politely ask some of the hotel guests tocheck their belongings before they leave fearing that the same things may have happened to them without themknowing it.
To our surprise, three hotel patrons, who are not members of our wedding guests, volunteered information that their door was opened by a suspicious woman who also had the same key to their room. The woman exclaimed, "Ay may tao pala." And she briskly left. Also, one of our principal sponsors found out in the morning that their door was ajar when his wife swore that she made sure that she locked the door before she and her children went to bed.
Early in the morning of May 10, we asked assistance from the front desk to help us open the safety vault inside our room because the key given to us could not open it. The receptionist sent one of the bellboys up for assistance but still the vault would not budge. My husband and I decided that we would no longer use the vault. At the time of our discovery of the robberies, we found out that the vault was already open. We wanted to ask the bellboy who brought up a spare key how did this happen. My mother has a vague remembrance of his face so she went to the front desk to ask if the hotel kept I.D. pictures of its staff, Mr. Pangan flatly refused her request saying, "We could not dothat because it's administrative policy." When we asked why, he merely shrugged, "We want to protect our employees." I thought we were the ones who needed protection there.
After almost thirteen hours of futile request to the operations manager to let us talk to the owner of the hotel we were ready to leave and settle our accounts. The owner suddenly appeared and went straight to his office. We wanted to talk to him, just to let him know of some of the irregularities that we experienced inside his hotel. The hotel staff refused our request.
They finally yielded when my father-in-law insisted to talk to him. We were made to wait interminably. My father-in-law went directly to the administrative office and politely requested that he be given a few minutes to talk to the owner. A family friend, Bro. Noel Bava, SJ went in with my father-in-law. We were hoping that the Korean owner would be more cooperativeand helpful this time. But he was stubborn and refused to take responsibility over the incident. He kept on telling us that it was our fault that our belongings got stolen. And as owners of these belongings, we were the ones responsible for our things. That it was not the responsibility of the hotel to keep an eye on our stuff. That even in our own house, we are not 100%safe. That it is the responsibility of the government of the Philippines to provide security to its citizens after all, this is our country.
When my father-in-law asked for his name, he said no, he is not going to give it. He stood up, called security, told his staff to call the police and take my father-in-law and Bro. Bava out of his office immediately.
It is not really the laptop or the money that we were after. We could easily have them replaced. But the memories that this sad and lamentable incident that happened on the day of my wedding and the fact that it will make its mark on us forever, the refusal of the hotel administration to accept responsibility and pay for it, the shabby treatment that we received from thehotel owner, a Korean, a foreigner doing business on our soil, and staff that would do anything to keep their boss blameless and free of responsibility of the crime done to us, this we could not accept.
We are aghast that such business, whom we have also learned from the Intelligence and Investigation Officeof SBMA, had a history of robberies the past months and was requested to put up security cameras and additional locks on their rooms, is allowed to continue operating inside Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
We asked your good office if you could help us inform your readers about this incident so that the same things may not happen to them. We would also appreciate if you could run a follow up article or news story on this.
Thank you very much and God bless.
Respectfully yours,Dr. Abigail Fernandez-Bautista, DMD
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