Romielyn’s salary is not a place we can cut the expenses because we need to have a manager in charge at Bohol Jewel. As I mentioned Elsie and I do not stay at Bohol Jewel, and we do not receive any salary from Bohol Jewel and therefore we are not expected to be there working there day to day. Without Romielyn (or a manager) everything would stop.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nRestaurant and other expected opening<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As this pandemic continues month after month, we keep pushing further the opening of the restaurant. We have now decided that we will not open the restaurant and bars, or hire any more staff, until the Philippines decides to fully open back to international travelers. This is so we can save our funding so we can be ready to open when the time comes. We don’t want to waste our reserves and have nothing left to open the restaurant when the time comes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means no quarantine, automatic visa upon arrival, like it was before. So if they simply start allowing some people to enter but keep other restrictions in place, we will still wait until there is a viable customers arriving in Bohol to make the restaurant and bars viable. Given the current situation in the Philippines, I honestly don’t expect any of this until 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Generator usage during the pandemic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As you know we all contributed 7,160 pesos towards purchasing a generator in 2019. With 44 apartments, this only raised 315,000 pesos. We ended up buying a generator for 450,000 pesos with me and Elsie contributing the extra 135,000 pesos (in addition to 7,160 for our 10 apartments).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have instructed Romielyn to add a “generator surcharge” to the bills of all residents of Bohol Jewel. This will be used to pay for fuel and maintenance of the generator. These expenses should only be paid by the people who are residing in the apartments and benefiting from the generator, and not by the people who are away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been numerous power interruption in Bohol during the pandemic some lasting entire days, and the generator has been used much more than expected. So much that repairs have already been required. The battery had to be replaced, the ignition switch failed, and some other problems that I was not told what it was. My problem with this is that only 3 apartment owners are currently staying at Bohol Jewel, so all other 41 apartment owners are not benefiting at all from the generator. If the power interruptions continue we could easily be in a situation where something happens to the generator and requires replacement or expensive repair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This would be very unfair to the 41 apartment owners who paid for the generator but got nothing out of it. So I would like to suggest that we stop using the generator during the pandemic and only resume when the pandemic is over. It’s fairly simple to plan some activities when there is a planned power outage, like going to the beach or the mall. I would like to invite all owners to give their opinions about this and we can decide what to do with a simple majority of those who contributed towards the generator. Short-term renters obviously did not pay anything towards the generator so we will not ask their opinions, this is only concerning owners who paid 7,160 pesos per apartment plus Elsie and I who paid 206,000 towards the generator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My vote is that we stop the generator during the pandemic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nI just want to go on record to say that if something happens to the generator during the pandemic, I will not be contributing like I did last time towards the purchase of another generator, we just don’t have the money. So it would be wise to keep the generator intact until the pandemic is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Situation in Bohol<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As the rest of the world returns to normal, the Philippines is stuck in a Covid restrictions, that they mostly created themselves. Travel to the Philippines is still prohibited for foreigners, even if they are vaccinated. Those who can enter because of family ties have to have proper visas, undergo a 10 day facility quarantine in Manila, and further PCR tests after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bohol recently went back to general community quarantine, which is an escalation from their previous status. Cases are at an all-time high. Although vaccinations are progressing, they are still far from reaching the levels needed to re-open the economy safely. This is why I don’t think much will change for the rest of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n