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Friday, March 29, 2024

Leni’s EJK yarn puts PH on a spot–DoT

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TOURISM Secretary Wanda Teo said Wednesday that Vice President Leni Robredo’s statements and media reports about extrajudicial killings have made it difficult to promote the Philippines as a tourist destination.

In a press briefing in Bangkok, Teo asked the media to tone down reports on the killings.

“Help us sell the Philippines. Help us because…it’s very difficult for me to sell the Philippines, especially if extrajudicial killings are being discussed,” Teo said.

Teo said tour operators abroad were “always” asking her about the issue, citing Asia and Europe as regions where people were particularly concerned.

Teo was reacting to Robredo’s video message sent to a side event of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs annual meeting, in which she denounced police abuses in the government’s war on drugs. 

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The video was criticized by Malacañang as well as Duterte’s allies, with House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez threatening to file an impeachment complaint against Robredo.

Teo, along with other Cabinet officials, accompanied President Rodrigo Duterte for a two-day official visit in Thailand.

Teo said that while she had great respect for Robredo, her accusations would hurt tourist arrivals in the Philippines.

Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo

Duterte was elected last year after promising during the campaign to eradicate drugs in society by killing tens of thousands of people.

Since he took office nearly nine months ago, police have reported killing 2,594 people in the drug war while rights groups say thousands more have been killed in a state-sanctioned campaign of mass murder.

While most of those killed have been poor people living in slums, some foreigners have also died.

Duterte briefly suspended all police from the crackdown in January after it was revealed anti-drugs officers used the drug war as cover for kidnapping and murdering a South Korean businessman.

But, after describing the police force as “corrupt to the core,’’ Duterte brought it back a month later and vowed to continue the crackdown until all drug traffickers were off the streets or killed.

Duterte has over the past year become a well-known figure internationally because of the drug war and his caustic rhetoric against critics.

Duterte this week boasted that calling then-US President Barack Obama a “son of a whore” had made him famous.

He then used more foul language to respond to criticism from European lawmakers of the drug war, and called them “crazies.”

On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno warned barangay officials that if they failed to reduce drug-related incidents in their respective jurisdictions, they would be charged with negligence of duty.

The President’s spokesman, Ernesto Abella, criticized an article in The New York Times for “cynically and unfairly” linking Duterte’s rise to power with violence.

“One would expect more from The New York Times. Their article, ‘Becoming Duterte : The Making of a Philippine Strongman,’ sounds like a well-paid hack job for well-heeled clients with shady motives,” Abella said.

He said Duterte “does not engage in western liberal niceties to promote his agenda, to rebuild a nation with compromised internal structures.”

The Philippines, despite picturesque tropical islands and spectacular mountains, has long lagged behind its neighbors as a tourist destination.

This is partly due to decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies, as well as frequent kidnappings of foreigners by Islamic militants.

About 5.9 million tourists visited the Philippines last year, compared with 32.6 million for Thailand. With PNA, AFP

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