Why didn’t the heads of the DOT, Pagcor and Tesda simply request PDDCP to prepare new logos for their respective agencies, and in the process save taxpayers’ money?
In an essay I earlier wrote in this column, I discussed the on-going anomaly hounding the Department of Tourism (DOT) under Secretary Maria Christina Frasco.
That anomaly is about the Frasco fiasco regarding a tourism promotional campaign which involves P49-million of taxpayers’ money.
Last month, the news media revealed that Frasco’s DOT contracted DDB Philippines, a high-end public relations company, to come up with a campaign package to promote tourism in the Philippines.
To repeat, the price tag on that campaign package was P49-million.
Among the items included in the campaign package are a new tourism campaign slogan, a corresponding promotional logo embodying the slogan, and a videogram highlighting tourist destinations located in the Philippines.
The DOT eventually allowed the public dissemination of the submitted videogram.
Soon thereafter, the DOT found itself in a controversial, embarrassing predicament.
It turned out the videogram submitted by DDB Philippines contained stock footage of tourism sites, not in the Philippines but sitesabroad. One footage is about acres of dessert sand dunes obviously in the Middle East!
Likewise, DDB Philippines fraudulently made it appear the same stock footage are its original video creations, even if they were merely acquired from an outlet that sells stock footage.
News of the Frasco fiasco made it to the local and international news, thereby embarrassing the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Why Frasco and top DOT officials failed to notice the anomaly in the videogram is not explained by the DOT.
That failure suggests that Frasco and her DOT team either did not review the videogram thoroughly, or they are not familiar with tourist destinations in the Philippines.
It is very disturbing to realize that Frasco, the Secretary of Tourism herself, and her minions in the DOT are not even acquainted with tourist destinations in the Philippines.
How can they even start promoting tourism in the Philippines if they themselves aren’t familiar with tourist sites in the country?
Further, DDB Philippines came out with a patently simplistic new campaign slogan, namely, “Love the Philippines,” to replace the existing one, “It’s more fun in the Philippines.”
As I stated in my previous article, “Love the Philippines” sounds more like an exhortation for Filipinos to patronize local products, rather than as a tourism campaign slogan.
I also mentioned that Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile and Senator Nancy Binay are among the many prominent personalities who dislike the new slogan.
That’s not all.
DDB Philippines also came up with a new promotional logo stating “Love the Philippines.” The logo looks like a hybrid of a Letras y Figuras type of painting during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines and a denim manufactured using a vinta sail.
Sadly, the phrase “Love the Philippines” drowns in the awful background of mixed colors that seem to defy the principles of artistic color use.
A news item in the websites states that the DOT campaign logo cost P300,000 of taxpayers’ money.
Like the DOT, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), the government agency in charge of legalized gambling activities in the country, is also in the spotlight.
Incidentally, gaming is a euphemism for gambling.
Last month, Pagcor revealed to the public its new logo which cost the taxpayers a whopping P3-million.
The expensive new logo looks like a hybrid of the Petron trademark and the hairdo of a character from the Simpsons animated television series.
Why Pagcor wasted that much taxpayers’ money on its new logo has not been explained satisfactorily.
The lame excuse given by Pagcor is that other factors necessary for the final preparation of the new logo had to be paid for.
Not to be outdone, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) also spent public money on its new logo.
Unlike the large sums of money wasted by Frasco’s DOT and Pagcor on their new logos, the Tesda spent P10,000 for its new design.
The amount was a cash prize given to the winner of a logo-making contest organized earlier by the Tesda.
Product Development and Design Center of the Philippines (PDDCP) is a government agency that specializes in creating designs, including logos.
I have seen a logo prepared by PDDCP for a government office and I must say that many of them are worthwhile designs.
To the best of my knowledge, PDDCP can create logos for government agencies.
Why didn’t the heads of the DOT, Pagcor and Tesda simply request PDDCP to prepare new logos for their respective agencies, and in the process save taxpayers’ money?
There are good reasons for many taxpayers to suspect that if the heads of the said three government agencies were to pay for their new office logos from their own personal pockets, they would not even entertain the idea of calling for such expensive new logos.