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No room in the inn: Ermita hotels almost fully booked for Pope visit


There's no more room in the inn. This Christmas saying may now apply to Manila's Ermita tourist district  as Pope Francis' visit to the Philippines draws closer.
 
Business operators in Manila's tourist district said hotels and inns are almost fully booked on dates the Pope is in Manila, a report on GMA News' Unang Hirit reported Tuesday.
 
Citing information from the Ermita Malate Business Operators Association, the report said many reservations had been made in hotels and inns especially for Jan. 17 and 18.
 
On Jan. 18, Pope Francis is expected to meet religious leaders and young people at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
 
In the afternoon, he will go on a motorcade for the Concluding Mass at Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park. He is to depart the Philippines Jan. 19.
 
The television report said there is now no more vacancy at the historic Luneta Hotel, where members of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines are booked.
 
On the other hand, hotels and inns at Tacloban City in Leyte are also fully booked in time for the papal visit.
 
Tacloban is one of the areas hit hardest by super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), when it devastated Visayas in November 2013 and left at least 6,300 dead.
 
18k MPD personnel
 
Meanwhile, the Manila Police District will deploy 18,000 personnel in the city to secure the papal convoy.
 
The Pope is due to arrive Jan. 15 for his visit to Metro Manila and Leyte. — Joel Locsin/RSJ, GMA News
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