A FORMER executive of luxury resort brand Aman Resorts is behind the operations of Banwa Private Island, hailed by international foreign travel and business publications as the “most expensive in the world.”
In a text exchange with the BusinessMirror, Bobby Horrigan, chief executive officer of Aquos Management Inc., which manages Banwa, confirmed that Aquos Foundation owned the posh island resort. The foundation’s president is Janet Oquendo, “former Aman head under Adrian [Zecha, Aman Resorts founder] for 23 years.”
Oquendo was previously connected with Amanpulo, the playground of Hollywood celebrities in Palawan; Amanjena in Marrakech, Morocco; and Amanwella in Sri Lanka. According to published sources, Oquendo hails from Palawan.
Banwa’s web site shows Rochelle Kilgariff, Banwa’s general manager, as having previous experience in managing “bespoke” luxury accommodations such as Soneva Fushi in the Maldives, Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay in Oman, Karma Kandara in Bali, and Finolhu and Amilla, also in the Maldives.
Horrigan himself is a hospitality management veteran, having worked previously with the Discovery Leisure Group.
Horrigan said the “people behind [the foundation] is a group of Filipino businessmen,” though he did not identify who they were. Pressed on their identities and if the owners had been connected with the tourism industry before, or were in capital management, the Aquos Management executive said, they “are regular businessmen only.”
Sources said high-ranking officials of the DOT were not pleased with the opening of Banwa, which generated a lot of publicity here and abroad for its $100,000 a night accommodations, because it failed to secure accreditation from the agency. “They’re actually not allowed to operate,” an official informed this paper. The sources added that the DOT, thereafter, told the resort’s management to submit their application for accreditation.
Asked about the status of their accreditation application, Horrigan said, however, he “doesn’t know these details. Our GM Rochelle Kilgariff would know more about this subject.” (See, “No DOT accreditation for costliest resort,” in the BusinessMirror, May 21, 2019.)
He enjoined this paper to e-mail him questions about the resort. No responses from Aquos Management or from Banwa resort have been received as of press time.
Republic Act 9593, or the “Tourism Act of 2009”—as supported by the Department of the Interior and Local Government Memorandum Circular 2019-17—requires primary tourism enterprises (PTEs), which include hotels and resorts, to seek accreditation from the DOT, before local government units issue them business permits. “Noncompliance to the provisions thereof is punishable by law,” according to a news statement from the DOT.
PTEs also include travel and tours services; land, sea and air transport services exclusively for tourist use; and other enterprises identified by the tourism secretary in consultation with tourism stakeholders.
In a separate news statement, the DOT once more warned the public to only transact with agency-accredited tourism establishments.