A replica of the once first class hotel in the Philippines was built in Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar, famous theme park for heritage houses, adjacent to the West Philippines Sea here.
“Muling nabuhay ang Hotel de Oriente, ginawang convention center at ang unang gagamit ay ang APEC (Hotel Oriente was relived, made into a convention center that APEC will be the first to use.”), said Dexter Manansala, head of the Tour Guides department of Las Casas Filipinas.
The fully-air-conditioned hall can accommodate 1,200 persons.
It rests near a portion of the beach adjacent to the West Philippines Sea and fronting various heritage houses spread in the 400-hectare land near the sea in Pag-asa, one of 14 villages in Bagac.
APEC groups of 21 economies in the Pacific Rim conducts workshop on Fiscal Management through Transparency and Reforms on June 9-10 while the Senior Finance Officials meeting on June 11-12.
Delegates coming are from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, China, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Hongkong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Vietnam, United States and Philippines.
Manansala said that delegates as well as other visitors will be fascinated with the beauty and comfort they will experience in the new Hotel de Oriente. The APEC meeting will be held at the second floor.
The floors of the two-storey building are of wood parquet while the ceilings are made of wood mosaic with painting of national artist Botong Francisco.
The steps of the winding stairs are also of wood mosaic.
At the first floor is Juan Luna’s Spolarium made also of wood mosaic done by a local artist. “Hindi ito kinulayan at ang ginamit ay ang natural color ng kahoy (This was not colored and what came out was the natural color of wood),” Manansala said.
He said that the new Hotel de Oriente was built through pictures and documents about the old one that was destroyed during World War II. At its former site near the Binondo Church is the Titana Building.
Records showed that the two-storey hotel had 83 rooms, one room occupied by national hero Dr. Jose Rizal when he arrived from Hongkong on June 26, 1892.
