Ugly Korean

LAST TIME we looked, foreign investors in the country still cannot fully own local companies, much less vast tracts of land, whether private estates or those in the public domain.

We need to look elsewhere, perhaps, to explain then the claim of exclusivity over a public road by the Korean investor who put up the Puning Hot Springs Spa at the boundary of Porac and Angeles City.

Hurting and raging was the group of 4X4 enthusiasts led by no less than Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vice-Chair Rene Romero, Pampanga Off-Roaders Club Inc. top honcho Marni Castro, and Land Rover Club Phil. President Robby Consunji after they were barred, repeatedly, from driving through the road in the area of the wellness spa.

The group was on its way to Sitio Target of Barangay Sapangbato, Angeles City with tourists and pilots participating in the 20^th International Hot Air Balloon Festival at the Clark Freeport when stopped.

“It was a very big surprise for us,” Romero said, cognizant that it was a public road they were traversing, no matter the expense the Korean proprietor – through his dummy – is putting up for its maintenance.

Consunji said they understood that the resort has its own fleet of 4X4s for its clients and tourists, but their group was not there to give them any competition. Their presence being a part of an on-going government-sanctioned event.

The injury of being barred from proceeding to their destination – delivered as it was by locals working at the spa – was further compounded by the insult the Korean management inflicted upon Romero et al with an unpleasant response after the group apprised them of what happened.

This notwithstanding, Romero was still able to serve some goodwill, “…glad for what the Puning Hot Springs Resort has done for the area. They have provided livelihood for the people in the neighboring Aeta communities.”

So, they will only write to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Bureau of Internal Revenue on the status of the resort, and make an incident report to the Pampanga provincial government.

No, this Puning Hot Springs Spa is outside the Republic of Tugade, er, Clark Freeport Zone and thus out of the Tatalonian Toughie’s protected domain. So I was told by sources in the Clark Development Corp.  

Interesting to find then where it gets its Mayor’s Permit and other business licenses, where it pays – and how much – taxes, who checks its sanitation and fire hazard compliance. Paging Mayor Ed Pamintuan and Mayor Carling de la Cruz!     

While at it, throw in the Department of Labor and Employment to check on the working conditions, the wages and other benefits of the workers there. Ditto the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples as Aetas are reported to be working there.

Romero, on behalf of the group, will also merely file a formal complaint with the Central Luzon Regional Development Council where he sits as private sector representative.

Considering that this is already the second instance of humiliation for Romero’s group in the hands of Puning’s Korean, give it to their sense of sobriety and kindness that they have not called on the Bureau of Immigration to declare this ugly Korean the most undesirable alien that he has proven himself to be.

Just because he/she/it invested millions gives him/her/it no excuse, much less any right, to discriminate against Filipinos in their own land. He/she/it ought to be banished from here, pronto.

We have already an overload of local overlords trampling upon us, we don’t need to import any, especially this Kim Jong-Il come-to-life.