Revisiting the failed Kang-Irag Golf Course

As I predicted, I got a call from Sen. Richard "Dick" Gordon who didn’t take lightly to our criticism of his proposed Senate Bill No. 2138, otherwise known as the "Tourism Act of 2005". But I had to tell him that too many people in the tourism industry in Cebu weren’t aware of his proposal, especially the part where tourists have to pay $5 per day in tourist fees and I was told they were not consulted on this.

Of course, Dick argued about the benefits of his proposal. I said though that I agree with 80 percent of its content but there are points that I totally disagree with and he still has to convince not only me but also a lot of people in Cebu to see it his way. He should know what’s happening here.

There is no doubt that it takes money to market our tourism industry and we are way behind what Malaysia, Thailand or Indonesia had spent for their tourism promotions. But then so is everything in the Philippines. Just look at the state of our Armed Forces today and even Sen. Gordon would agree with me — that because the Philippines is poor, we are lacking in so many things. Tourism is not an exception. Never mind what Hong Kong is doing to sell their country to international tourists. They’ve been doing that for decades!

But then, we just can’t shock our tourism industry with new ideas without clearly putting all plans together and explaining it to them. What I gathered from tourism industry insiders is that Sen. Gordon’s point man in the Visayas was the one who told him that local tourism operators were agreeable to the $5 tourist fee. Perhaps he was made to believe that the tourism industry people wanted this when the reality is, most of them are opposed to the idea. In short, Sen. Gordon has a lot of PR work to do in Cebu before they agree to jump on to his bandwagon.

Let’s face it, we only have a few big name hotel resorts whose tourists can afford to pay this amount and let me point out that not all tourists can afford that much in tourism fees. A lot of them even come via discounted rates and this is exactly what is happening in most hotels, which often sell their rooms to tour operators below standard rates just to get their rooms sold to tour groups. This is why people in the industry believe that this added burden might send the tourists away from the Philippines!

Meanwhile, I’ve asked Sen. Gordon this question: What if all income coming from the tourism industry that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collects will be given to his Tourism Superbody? Unfortunately that is not part of Sen. Gordon’s plan, so he has no room for my ideas in his bill.

I told Sen. Gordon in no uncertain terms that the establishment of regional offices for this new super body is no different from what the Department of Tourism is today. It would be just like any government agency with a regional office.

Let me point out again that we do not need regional offices in all the regions simply because the idea is still to focus on what success stories we have while saving our needed funds. Putting up regional offices is passé and something which we don’t need. So let’s move forward sans this unnecessary provision.

I also insist that the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) should be made accountable for what happened to the ill-fated Kang-Irag Golf Course in the mountains of Cebu City. I still recall the last time I played golf there was with Sen. Sergio Osmeña III. Back then, the Gary Player-designed golf course was 85 percent complete when it was sequestered by the government after the EDSA Revolt. But the PTA said that running the golf course was costing them P20 million a year without giving us any details why they were losing money.

I wrote before that someone was getting the fruits of all those mango trees surrounding the Kang-Irag Golf Course and pocketing the proceeds. But today, not a single PTA official has been made accountable for the mango trees despite the numerous columns we have devoted to it.

As we said, despite our protestations for Ever Gotesco Development not to destroy the Kang-Irag Golf Course, they ended up bulldozing it to make way for the Nick Price-designed Golf Course. Today, Mr. Jose Go has not delivered a new golf course as promised and no one has been jailed for cooking up this deal which the government was obviously in the losing end. Wake up people in the Office of the Ombudsman!

In order to help Sen. Gordon, I invited him to be a guest in my Talk show so he would explain his proposal to the people of Cebu. Hopefully, he’d be able to make it to our taping next week. In the meantime, I have to find out the comments from the Hotel, Resort, Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC). I gathered that they’re supposed to meet this week. When we get their comments, we’ll write about this.

I just hope that Sen. Gordon doesn’t have a close mind on his bill. As I’ve said, it would be better if the revenues that the government gets from the hotel and restaurant industry be used to fund his super Tourism Corp. That way, we can still sell our tourism industry without scaring the tourists away.

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Last weekend, our Big Bike group, the Easyriders Motorcycle Club, together with our brother motorcycle clubs, the Recycle Motorcycle Club, VOG/Star, Redeemers and the Cycluns rode to the City of Bayawan, some 100 kilometers west of Dumaguete City upon the invitation of Bayawan City Mayor German Saraña Jr. to attend the Bike for the Children 2006, Bayawan’s way of celebrating its fiesta, which they hope would become an annual Big Bike affair where Big Bikers from Luzon and Mindanao would also join.

The highlight of our long ride from Cebu was the turnover of school supplies to kids in Bayawan by the Easyriders. The other clubs also gave out their donations in cash and in kind. The Recycle Club also gave eight boxes of medicines. While those are not big donations, it certainly comes from the hearts of big Bikers.

I already wrote before about the great promise that Bayawan has as one of the most beautiful bays in the country, which is comparable to the other great bays of the world like Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, Ipanema Beach in Rio or the beaches of Nice or St. Trope’ in Provence, Southern France. Bayawan’s beaches are not as white as Bantayan’s or Boracay’s, but they are not black or brown either. If tourists discover this place, I predict that someday it could be the next tourism boomtown. With Mayor Saraña pushing for more development of his city, I’m sure that many investors would love to try a place that is just beginning to grow like Bayawan City.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.