Dick wants Yakuza in to boost tourist arrival

Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon wants the Bureau of Immigration to relax its policy against the entry into the country of restricted nationals, including the members of the dreaded Yakuza gang, to help counter the unprecedented plunge in the number of tourists coming to Manila following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

However, the Bureau of Immigration remains firm in its policy against the entry of restricted nationals and members of foreign-based criminal syndicates, saying these foreigners, who are not legitimate tourists, would only become public charges, and would create additional problems in the peace and order situation.

Simeon Vallada, head immigration supervisor at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, said that if the bureau would follow the suggestion of Gordon, the Philippines would become a haven for undesirable aliens that include suspected terrorists, a number of whom tried to enter the country before Sept. 11 using stolen European passports.

Vallada also said that legitimate tourists do not go to places where members of foreign-based criminal syndicates stay.

"This will prove that the presence here of foreign-based criminal elements is a negative factor to the country’s tourism industry," he added.

Gordon was reported to be looking for a scapegoat for a problem which is not anybody’s doing. He was quoted as blaming the bureau for the unprecedented decrease in the number of tourist arrivals into the country.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, all foreign airlines have suffered losses in terms of passenger loads. At least six of the 32 foreign airlines that fly to Manila have reduced their flight frequencies. They are Northwest Airlines, China Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Swiss Air and Cathay Pacific Airlines. — Rey Arquiza