The Catholic Church and the national government on Thursday urged all hotel owners in the country to be considerate in increasing their room rates with two months to go before Pope Francis’s visit next year.
Reacting to the reports that the regular rates of hotels in Manila and Leyte have been doubled,
including the cost of food, Fr. Jaime Marquez, member of the National Organizing Committee for Pope Francis’s visit, said they will ask for the government’s help for it to appeal to these establishments.
“Let us appeal to all of the business sector to consider all these things. [But] there are many people who are accommodating. If you have friends from abroad and they have difficulty booking a hotel room, accommodate them,” he said in a weekly news conference.
According to news reports, hotels and inns in Manila and Leyte, particularly in Palo and Tacloban, are almost fully booked on the dates the pope will be in the country.
Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) slammed Eastern Visayas and parts of Western and Central Visayas on November 8, 2013, killing 6,300 people, displacing a population of 4.1 million and damaging 1.1
million homes.
Lawyer Jess Yu, undersecretary for legislative, policy and legal affairs of the Presidential Communications Operation Office, said the Palace will ask the Department of Tourism (DOT) to act on the reports.
“We will coordinate with the DOT regarding that matter; we don’t want the rates to rise. That’s a [cause] for concern,” he said.
The pope will stay in the country from January 15 to 19 to visit Yolanda survivors in Leyte, particularly in Palo and Tacloban, and to interact with Filipino youth and families.
Based on the itinerary released to the media, Pope Francis is expected to arrive in Manila from Sri Lanka, the first leg of his Asian trip, around 5 p.m. on January 15, and will go on a motorcade to his residence in Manila.
