Mayor Benedicto Alcala warned yesterday the reported presence of ‘leftist groups' in Panglao resorts citing the possibility that they could be used as front to the escalation of insurgency in the tourist island. “Can you imagine Panglao being threatened by insurgency because front organizations are making hay in the island's resorts”, Mayor Alcala asked. The mayor's apprehension came amid reports that front organizations of the communist movement were recruiting members from employees of resorts to join labor unions. The leftist presence in Panglao surfaced in the open when the high-end Alona Palm Resort closed shop after a militant group identified with Akbayan picketed the premises of the establishment.

The owner who is a Swedish national fearing an outbreak of violence in the picket lines chose to close shop leaving its workers holding the empty bag. The resort owner lamented the fact that despite his fair treatment of his employees by giving them the mandated minimum wages chose to call a sit-down strike. With the out-of-work employees, some of them affiliated to a radical labor union based in Cebu, sought the help of Mayor Alcala for the chief executive to convince the resort owner to reopen only to be rebuffed because he had already made up his mind. Expressing his disgust to the striking workers, Mayor Alcala also refused to recommend them to other resorts lest will only sow unrest in these establishments which had since been enjoying industrial peace all this time.

The Bohol Beach Blub, the premier resort in Panglao with the longest stretch of white powdery beach, was one of the establishments to have a sister union that triggered the closure of Alona Palm. However, the resort management pre-empted what befell the fate suffered by its uppity neighbor by giving in to the demands of the employees. In gratitude, the BBC labor union was all praises to management for looking after their welfare. The secret of BBC peaceful environment was that they acceded to the laborers' request to impose additional charges to the resort's services. Alona Palm management said much to its desire to accede to the laborers' demand for service charges but doing so will only make hotel rates like food and accommodation more expensive to its clientele. The Alona management chose not to impose the service charges and they became victim of the strike. In calling for restraint in the use of their labor rights, Mayor Alcala called on union leaders to exercise more restraint saying that if a strike takes place in a resort in Panglao it will create a bad precedent and therefore not good for the tourism business.