‘Send fire victims away; bad for the restaurant’
The owner of White Gold House complained of losses incurred since Carreta fire victims started to occupy sidewalks near the restaurant on July 17.
Alex Gaisano, restaurant president and CEO, said he wants Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to relocate the fire victims to save his business.
“The White Gold House Restaurant is a tourist-oriented Chinese cuisine restaurant that caters (to) foreign visitors and business conferences. Due to the presence of the homeless residents, the place has turned into a slum area. As a consequence, our restaurant business has suffered a lot,” Gaisano said in an Aug. 25 letter to Rama.
Gaisano said since the July 17 Carreta fire, several bookings for business conferences, wedding, birthday parties and other important events in the restaurant have been canceled.
“Even our local customers are complaining that they cannot park their vehicles along the sides of the restaurant where they used to park when they come to take their lunch or dinner at White Gold House Restaurant for fear that their expensive vehicles will be vandalized by the children roaming along the street,” said Gaisano’s letter.
Gaisano said in his letter that even their security guards are unable to stop children who beg from their customers.
Mayor Rama, in an interview, said he agrees with Gaisano’s observations. He said he wants to find out why the victims are not in the Carreta Sports Complex.
He said that he is trying to ask the management of Robinsons which now owns a property at the back of the burnt White Gold department store to let the city build a temporary shelter for fire victims in the area.
Fire victims now occupy tents on the sidewalks of David Gaisano Street, across the restaurant and beside the burnt White Gold building while they wait to be allowed to return to the fire site.
Rama said he wants the area reblocked so that an access road may be opened before fire victims are allowed to rebuild.
The City Council was given a copy of Gaisano’s letter.
Councilors agreed during their Wednesday morning session to refer Gaisano’s concerns to the City Traffic Operations Management and the city’s demolition team.
