“No more visas from MECO or the Philippine consulates, corrupt BID employees found a lucrative racket”
AFTER a series of political articles and amid the deepening conflict in the Middle East which brings to fore how inadequate our government response can possibly be, I will shift my lens to the travel industry.
Everybody and his mother seem to find pleasure in blaming Christina Frasco for the failure of the country to keep in step with our Asean neighbors, whose arrival numbers have dramatically recovered from the pandemic slump, while we are stuck in 6.5 million arrivals, a far cry from our 8.2 million pre-Covid visitors.
To be sure, tourism is a multi-faceted concern that should be approached as an all-of-nation effort.
Peace and order is the top issue, and when visitors get mugged, robbed, even cheated by mulcting taxi drivers, expect negative experiences to go around the world’s capitals, friendly smiles of “hospitality” notwithstanding.
Cost is another. When hotels cost an arm and a leg compared to Da Nang, Chiang Mai or Penang, potential travelers will look askance.
Connectivity is another. When a tourist can fly straight to Phuket without having to pass Bangkok, while going to Siargao means having to land first in Manila, then to Cebu or Clark, and pays an atrocious price to fly to the small Sayak airport in that beautiful island caressed by Pacific waves, travelers will think twice. Time is wasted. Cost is prohibitive.
We have so many beautiful but remote islands, but how does one get there? By pump boat that takes hours, after a long filthy bus ride and a rickety tricycle? No way, Jose.
Some countries have not elevated tourism into a ministry or department. Some tuck in tourism concerns with their transportation, trade or culture ministries, but they succeed in attracting more tourists than a country which has elevated tourism into a ministry 53 years ago, while most Asean countries have only recently done so.
Frasco to be fair tried her best, but “LOVE the Philippines” was a slogan forced upon her by a palace favorite, since disengaged. The hospitality industry cannot compete with heavily subsidized Vietnam or overly competitive Thailand where hotel rooms cost a fraction of ours, whether high-end or for backpackers.
Our food may be gaining some attention from foodies, but it’s either pretentious fusion cuisine reserved for the uber-wealthy, or street food that, while tasty, looks yucky, served in unsanitary surroundings.
A thousand and one concerns, which requires a whole-of-nation approach, and a government serious at funding infrastructure and connectivity, funding targeted promotional efforts, and removing onerous taxes on everything that has to do with travel.
Christina Frasco is made to look like a failure, but from an unbiased observer looking at the bigger picture, she should not be the scapegoat for our travel woes.
Now a word of friendly advice to a lady I have never met: do not accept that sop of a “consuelo de bobo” as presidential adviser for … “nothing.”
Ayaw dawata ana-ang pwesto, lahi baya ka kay ni Larry Gadon.
***
Then there is the Bureau of Immigration under the Department of Justice.
Three Taiwanese employees were treated to a holiday in Coron, Palawan by their boss, a Filipina with Chinese roots who practices her profession in Taipei.
Arriving at NAIA last Feb. 28, they went through immigration. One of them got her passport stamped quickly, since the required visa has been waived for 14-day visitors since a few months back.
But the other two had a harrowing experience. The immigration officer “profiled” them, and brought them to a holding room, where they saw several other Chinese-looking passengers huddled, mostly from mainland China.
To cut a long story short, details of which I tried to report to a friend who apparently no longer works for the immigration bureau, the two had to pay 50 thousand pesos each to BID employees to be allowed entry into our “friendly” isles.
Their Filipino host who was waiting interminably outside had to contact someone to “negotiate” and eventually pay the hundred thousand pesos. But that’s not the end of the story.
Their companion who mercifully passed without hassle, and who was waiting at the carousel area for an hour, was spotted by an “alert” immigration employee, and seeing the three now exiting, was dunned another 50 thousand more.
Akala mo makakalusot ka, ha?
Add this everyday happening to the many travel woes experienced by incoming visitors to this benighted country.
No more visas from MECO or the Philippine consulates, corrupt BID employees found a lucrative racket.
The sums may be petty to jaded Filipinos when compared to the billions stolen by our greedy legislators, but it’s harassment such that a visitor will curse — never again!
