Not good news: "Police authorities confirmed that an Australian national was shot dead last night inside a resort in Olongapo City, Philippines. "The victim was identified as Paul Dean Davy, 52, general manager of Blue Rock resort at Brgy. Barretto, Olongapo City. "A witness told a police officer investigating the incident that Davy was talking to another Australian national at the resort restaurant when he was shot in the head from behind by an unidentified gun man. "Details of the attacker were sketchy but some employees told the subicupdater.com that the shooter looked like a Filipino. "The victim was taken to a nearby hospital where he died. "Australian embassy staff and local police officers are working on the case but have yet to say the motive for the killing." http://subicupdater.com/?p=356
I had dinner at the Blue Rock's quite well-thought-of restaurant, with Bob Couttie and a few other friends in September 2011.
Very sad. Don't know that specific place but we stayed at this hotel below in Barrio Barretto in 2005 when we went for a weekend break while Ana was pregnant with James, we had not planned the weekend properly and just turned up, I have to admit that I would not have picked Barrio Barretto had I known anything about it in advance, sleazy would be putting it mildly, which is a great shame as the view to the bay was truly spectacular.
Which end of the bay was that place at Andrew? Looks like they had invested a lot at that resort, new floating bar, albeit a girlie bar by the looks of it. This is the kind of thing that makes me think again about settling over there, even though I would be unlikely to ever offend anyone you just never know who might take a dislike to you. edit: Ah found it far western end of the main bay at Barrio Barretto http://goo.gl/maps/YctMl
I think it had changed hands - I think originally it was more of a dive bar sort of a place, but certainly, to judge by its own website, it was very much a girlie bar establishment. Bob Couttie will know much more than I.
The chap is still mentioned as general manager on the web site and they have several pages on the site of the "coming soon" variety which suggests that it was still a fairly recent venture for them (saying that a lot of sites end up with pages like that). At the time we went to Barrio Barretto Ana just wanted to go to Olongapo, basically because it was pretty, but we thought we were going to the main town, however as we had not planned it properly the taxi driver we had just took us the longest way possible maybe he did not know where he was going didn't cost us extra over the agreed fee so I tend to think he was just clueless, we ended up going right round the Bataan Peninsula after sunset, about a five hour drive from central Manila and we were just hoping for the best regards booking a hotel for the weekend. Tried stopping at several places but most were terrible and eventually ended up at the Suzuki which was a really nice good quality cheap Japanese hotel, good food, good location close to the volcanic beach, quite a stony ash laden beach probably the result of Pinatubo in the early 90's. Barrio Barretto struck me as being a very dodgy place, there was no real entertainment or decent pubs apart from the girlie bars, we walked into one and then walked right back out after realising where we were. Eventually found a quiet place with a pool table that we could enjoy (we both like pool) but that got spoiled by a rather loud American who wanted to play pool against me for money, who kind of ruined the evening for us. The whole place was a bit Wild West to be honest!
"Wild East!" I've had friends who lived in Barretto - it is quiet and respectable enough away from the "main drag" and has good shops for Western food, like Marmite. One ex resident tells me that the victim was apparently shot by, or on behalf of, a disgruntled employee - and commented that he was surprised it had taken so long... Subicupdater reports that the police have found the motorcycle used by the killer.
Its been a while but I lived on and off in olongapo from 1998-2004. We go back for a weekend evernow and again when we're across there. The main drag in Barretto was always a bit seedy but if you looked there was a few reasonable places to eat and drink. I remember a mexicain place that wasn't too bad on the main drag and the back bar in mango's was ok. The small front bar was girlie. Not that I went in there of course, I just heard from my shipmates..ahem. The more normal places away from the girlie stuff was places ike mangrove and shevens down a track by the big hotel on the left heading towards Subic. Can't remember the name of the hotel but it was empty for a long time. i always thought it was a white elelphant but I believe its a bit more successful these days. The housing away from the main drag was pretty good I thoughtfrom the expat houses I went to. It was where the majority of brits lived, ausies and yanks tended to stay more in olongapo. This of course is all from the memory of a drunken sailor!!
