From left, bellman Jacob Quitugua who has been with Aqua Resort Club for 15 years; Sales & Marketing Manager Noriko Jim, eight years; front desk agent Angel Cabrera, 10 years; Food & Beverage Assistant Manager Len Bernardo, 32 years; Chef de Cuisine Joe Bayking, 29 years; General Manager Sachiko Gerrard, 24 years; Chief Engineer Jimmy Magboo, 28 years; F&B Manager Ann Razon-Isip, 20 years; and Marketing Assistant Manager Victoria Barnes, six years.
MARKING its 34th anniversary today, Wednesday, July 5, 2023, Aqua Resort Club is also celebrating its three longest serving employees.
The ARC management congratulates and thanks Chief Engineer Jimmy Magboo who has been with the company since 1997; Assistant Food & Beverage Manager Len Bernardo, since 1991; and Chef Joe Bayking, since 1994.
True assets to the ARC team, they continue to make outstanding contributions to the hotel’s high standards, said General Manager Sachiko N. Gerrard who has been with ARC for 24 years now.
ARC, she said, is a small hotel that treats each employee as family. “If one has a problem, we all come to help. The staff of every department help each other and get together as a team,” she added. Even if an employee is assigned to the front desk, for example, if something is needed at the F&B, that employee is always ready to assist, she said.
Magboo, Bernardo and Bayking are among the “amazing employees who have been working for ARC for the longest time. We just can’t leave because ARC is already like family to us,” Gerrard said.
Magboo, 66, has tended to every nook and cranny of the hotel for close to three decades now.
Troubleshooting technical and safety issues could be “too much” at times, but he believes that his enduring relationship with the company is worth all his hard work.
As for his working relationship with management and his co-employees, Magboo said: “I always see good things in people. And the people here are all good. Because if not, I would have left a long time ago.”
Magboo said his top goal every day that he goes to work is to make ARC a safe and comfortable place. “The safety of guests is my No. 1 priority because they come here to relax,” he added. He sees to it that everything — the rooms, the swimming pool, the lobby, the hallway and other areas — will make guests feel satisfied and relaxed.
He expressed his gratitude to his employers who, he said, “really know how to take care of their employees.”
Bayking has spent almost half of his life with ARC, working for the hotel since 1994.
Although he has worked with other employers, he said he is always proud to be a part of the ARC team “because here on Saipan, if people from other tourist-oriented businesses find out you work at ARC, the reaction has always been, ‘Wow, high standards.’”
“I am happy to work at ARC, which I think loves me. Most of the employees and managers are good in cooperating with each other, especially our boss,” said Bayking who started as a cook. Over the years he had worked with German, Japanese, Filipino and local chefs, and learned a lot in the kitchen.
Without ARC, he said, he wouldn’t be on island because it was the company that brought him here. He considers ARC his home.
Gerrard said in times of natural disaster and during the Covid-19 pandemic, Bayking “never let us down. He continued to help keep our high standards.”
Bernardo started working for ARC as a service staff member in 1991. She said ARC also nurtured her career in F&B services. Like the rest of her co-workers, she said, “I was molded here to what I am today and I am here to continue to support ARC.”
The knowledge and skills she has learned over the years make her proud to be a part of a superb team, she said.
“We all started working here together. We are still here, and strong. We are a great team,” she added.
Bernardo said ARC has a “top-of-the-line group of managers,” from whom they learn everything through training and constant exposure to people.
“So we carry it with us to this day,” she added. “And I am thankful that we are still working with ARC. We will continue to make this hotel resort a place where guests can feel at home.”
