Santa Banana, Emil Jurado insulted in Cebu, oh My Gulay

Insulted twice over in Cebu

by Emil Jurado, 24 March 2009

My wife and I were in Cebu last weekend, both for business and pleasure. And since we were booked, along with our group at the Shangri-La Hotel Resort and Spa at Mactan Island, I expected to get a good rest and some quality time.
Instead, I had an unpleasant experience at the exclusive Aqua Coffee Shop at the Ocean Wing of the hotel.
During our flight back home, I debated with myself whether or not make this public; after much thought, I decided to tell my story here in my column.
The management of the Shangri-La Hotels all over the country may well regard this as my public complaint—and I can produce so many witnesses to back up my story—if only to make the hotel management aware that their services, which I have always regarded as impeccable, can still be found wanting.
If only to emphasize the fact that I have always held the Shangri-La Hotels in high regard, I have earned enough points to be a Golden Circle member by staying in so many Shangri-La Hotels in Asia.
Unfortunately, my experience at Cebu’s Shangri-La negates everything.
***
On the second day of our trip to Cebu, my wife decided to eat just the mangos that were in our room. Cebu is known for its delicious mangos. I went down to the Aqua Coffee Shop to take my breakfast.
When I entered the place, I asked the attendant where I could have my breakfast since the place was already teeming with Koreans. This is not an exaggeration, but if you go to Cebu, you will wonder why there are so many Koreans—and Korean establishments—all over.
My gulay, Koreans have indeed arrived—to Baguio and Angeles City to Metro Manila and now Cebu!
But back to my story. The attendant pointed me to a vacant table at the end of coffee shop. I headed for the buffet table first. Then, carrying my plate, I saw my group—but I could not sit with them because the table was full. When a staff saw me holding my plate, she took it from me and put it on the table which had been earlier shown me.
I was already seated and taking my breakfast when the service manager told me to find another table since a family of Koreans wanted to sit on my table.
It was at that point when I hit the ceiling. All these years, my wife and I have been going around the world and staying in five-star hotels. I have never been told to leave a table, while I was already eating, and for the benefit of others. I
My gulay, me, a Filipino, paying good money only to be sent away from a table which I was led to in the first place? Me, a Shangri-La Golden Circle member, insulted by fellow Filipinos?
This is the height of colonial mentality!
***
It was a double insult, actually. First, the ill-trained service manager insulted me in front of my friends and travel companions. The second insult was for the benefit of foreigners—Koreans whom I suspected the staff was beholden to.
When I refused to give up my table, and when I raised my voice, the Koreans decided to move to another table. My traveling companions told me that if I ever raised a complaint to management, they would testify in my favor since they witnessed everything.
On my way out of the coffee shop, the service manager caught up with me, apologizing for the incident. I told him that any apology was unacceptable because I had already decided to raise my complaint to the hotel management. Inside my room, I called and asked to talk to the resident manager—a foreigner. I was told he wasn’t around. No wonder the service quality in Shangri-La in Mactan has deteriorated.
In any case, I complained to the duty manager, who afterwards brought along with him the coffee shop service manager when I was taking my lunch at another hotel coffee shop. They profusely apologized. In the end, I told them I accepted their personal apology but still found the double insult unacceptable.
When you are slapped in the face and the person slapping you says he is sorry, it doesn’t change the fact: you were still slapped!
***
While the Cebuanos in that hotel are courteous and friendly—as Visayans normally are—the staff seems to be beholden to Korean tourists who chose the hotel, obviously because of its prestige.
Clearly, the Korean tourists have all the money to throw around.
Lest I am misunderstood, I have nothing personal against Koreans. My wife and I have been to Seoul many times, at one time with other journalists upon the invitation of the Korean government.
But the Korean tourists coming to the Philippines, even some of their expatriates, actually, are normally rowdy, brusque and ill-mannered. I am told that many of them have become rich because industries and real estate developers have paid them for their farms and other real property. In many golf courses, they are refused entry because of their uncouth manners.
Perhaps it is in Koreans’ culture to be aggressive, the South Koreans having been colonized for many years by Japan, and now being threatened by the North Koreans. Recall, too, that it was a contingent of Koreans serving under the Japanese Imperial Forces during the Occupation that raped Manila when the Japanese were already on retreat.
The treatment I got from the Shangri-La coffee shop brings to mind the fact that it was a Filipino—Lapu Lapu—who killed Magellan, the first foreigner invader and tourist in the island of Mactan. Sadly, the only accolade Lapu Lapu got in history was to have a fish named after him.
***
After relating my sad experience to a Cebuano—Bob Gothong—of Gothong Lines, he recalled a story how the Filipino Club in Cebu City started.
Bob said that all Cebuanos knew the story of Manuel L. Quezon, the first Filipino president of the Commonwealth was not allowed entry of the defunct Cebu Golf and Country Club, then composed of foreigners—Americans and British. The Cebuanos got so mad that they started the Club Filipino in the city.
Bob added that now, Koreans have put up an all-Korean shop near the airport, selling exclusive Korean goods for the benefit of their people. And then perhaps out of curiosity, Mrs. Tom Osmeña, the wife of the city mayor, tried to enter the shop. She was refused entry. The city mayor blew his top and ordered the shop closed.
Santa Banana, can you imagine Koreans preventing a Filipino from entering a shop right in his own country?
***
Coming to the many Korean abuses which the Labor Department and immigration bureau seem to tolerate and even coddle, the 19 deaths and the 35 labor-related injuries at Hanjin Dockyards in Subic seem to indicate to what extent many Koreans regard Filipinos.
For a while labor and immigration agents were even prevented entry by Hanjin. It was only after some senators visited the place that Hanjin abuses were exposed.
To add insult to injury, the Korean ambassador even threatened “serious negative repercussion” if Hanjin were to be investigated, hinting that the many Filipino migrant workers in South Korea could be arrested and deported. My gulay, are we Filipinos getting threatened in our own country?
And even discriminated against, just like I was in Shangri-la Hotel?