On Tue night, Mar 8, President Noynoy Aquino — along with Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Mar Roxas’ mother, Judy Araneta-Roxas — attended the grand launch of Novotel Manila Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City.
The Araneta Group is behind the PHP3-billion hotel project. Novotel Manila-Araneta Center is tagged as “the first and only Philippine hotel of global hospitality giant Accor Group that has close to 400 hotels and resorts in 60 countries.” It boasts of 450 rooms, a ballroom with 1,396-person capacity, an Olympic-sized pool, a gym, a spa and wellness center, a kid’s club, and (most important of all) multi-level basement parking.
The President started his speech by reminiscing about Cubao. He said, “Those of us from a certain — shall we say, advanced — generation will have many stories to tell about Cubao. From watching movies in the New Frontier Theater, to annual trips to buy school supplies and shoes in National Bookstore and ShoeMart or Marikina Shoe Expo; from the very first boxing match I saw with my father, to the intense college basketball games we watched in the Araneta Coliseum…”
He then added, “Let me tell you: It gives me great pleasure to witness the beginning of endeavors like this. It is a concrete manifestation of your confidence in our country; it tells me that, like us, you took a long, hard look at our prospects and decided that the best is yet to come — that the years ahead hold even greater progress for the Philippines.”
