I am not interested in "fighting" what is a losing battle, as most of these are.

On the other hand, I also received the rate change email today.
I called Booking.com CS and the agent wasn't really aware of this whole debacle (no surprise). She did mention that there was a note on my reservation to "forward all requests to the Singapore office", which she did. She also said that the hotel is the one who would charge the cancellation penalty. Why this could not be canceled w/o penalty over the phone immediately is beyond me. Let's just hope their Singapore office has come up with a solution that can be implemented immediately.

If there are any charges, I am going to call Amex and have them reject. Amex is much better at dealing with these situations, esp when it's only $50 involved.. and it looks like bait and switch on paper.