BIZ BUZZ: Insurance dispute
The Plantation Bay Resort and Spa located in Mactan, Cebu, is in a big dispute with its insurer, Standard Insurance, over the indemnification for the damage the popular vacation spot suffered due to Supertyphoon “Odette” in December of last year.
How big a dispute? Let’s just say it’s about P540 million big. That’s the amount Plantation Bay claims Standard Insurance should pay it for the replacement value of the properties that were either damaged or destroyed by the devastating typhoon that laid waste to Central Visayas last Christmas season.
Plantation Bay says it has paid Standard Insurance “millions of pesos” in premiums to insure the resort since 2009 and the latest policy valid from 2021 to 2022 is worth over P800 million in insurance coverage.
In May of this year, Standard Insurance paid P80 million in Plantation Bay’s claims as “advance payment.” Well and good.
But here’s the thing: Biz Buzz learned that, as of last month, Standard Insurance wrote Plantation Bay offering to pay a total amount of only P174 million, inclusive of the P80 million already advanced a few months ago.
Jaws dropped among the incredulous members of Plantation Bay’s owners and management. These guys are clearly unhappy with it and, we hear, are considering taking legal action.
Biz Buzz contacted Standard Insurance CEO Patty Echauz-Chilip who said that, based on their assessment, Plantation Bay was, in fact, “underinsured” for the damaged portions of the resort, and that it had failed to update its insurance values for the properties in question through the years.
So will these two parties manage to sort this dispute out? Or will it be heading to the courts? Abangan!
—Daxim L. Lucas
Sixty-Four
It is not his age, as he is now a septuagenarian. But tycoon Manuel Villar, who is increasingly becoming a restaurateur who fills up space in his shopping space, is growing a chain of restaurant-bars that pays homage to The Beatles’ song “When I’m Sixty-four.”
Part of the song says, “If I’d been out till quarter to three, would you lock the door; will you still need me, will you still feed me when I’m sixty-four.” He even sang this part as he explained the naming of the restaurant concept.
The bar offers a taste of nostalgia with its interior decor (think typewriters and old black telephones) and also with its retro music (but they also play modern hits). It becomes a dancing place in the evenings, too. You may chance upon a mini-flash mob during the weekends.
The first Sixty-Four opened at Evia Lifestyle Center in Las Pinas City, but Villar opened more branches, including at Vista Mall in Sta. Rosa, Malolos, Iloilo and Naga. There are now 10 of them.
Meanwhile, Villar has also considerably grown his coffee shop business. He now has about 100 under two brands: Dear Joe and The Coffee Project. The more recent concept, Dear Joe, is the country’s first letter-writing cafe; it’s pitched as the “perfect place to write a letter to someone special” while drinking coffee.
Of course, Villar takes pride in his food and beverage concepts being “Instagrammable.”
—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla INQ
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