COA: Kissing our tourism industry goodbye

It’s the seventh anniversary of the Sept.11 or 9/11 terror attack in New York City where the world witnessed the collapse of the twin buildings of the World Trade Center and the real beginning of the war against terror that defined most of the eight years of the administration of US Pres. George W Bush. Of course everything that the Americans did in retaliation of 9/11 was widely accepted by the western world until Pres. Bush went into Iraq based on faulty intelligence information. But we know too well that Pres. Bush did it to finish what his father didn’t do - get rid of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Everyone remembers certain periods in their life especially when history is made. For instance, when the assassination of US Pres. John F. Kennedy was announced, I was serving mass at the main altar of the Redemptorist Church when the priest made the announcement during his sermon. When the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was assassinated, I was listening over my portable AM radio while we were playing golf. It was something many Filipinos thought would never happen to Ninoy.

When the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were under attack by Al Qaeda, it was a Tuesday evening. We were in the middle of the corporate worship of the Bukas Loob sa Diyos, having a Holy Mass at the Redemptorist Church. Texts came flooding in asking to open our tv to CNN for something very bad was happening. As we finished, we rushed home just in time to see the horror of the other plane crash into the other twin tower. It was like seeing a movie except that this was reality. It was live breaking news!

A year and a half later, I went to New York City and went to ground zero where the World Trade Center used to stand. The skyline of downtown Manhattan had changed, and the world changed with it. We can no longer walk into public buildings without being inspected, nor fly an airliner without being scrutinized for possible bombs.

America committed its military into a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and later into Iraq and eventually toppled Saddam Hussein. Yet the war in Afghanistan continues today because Osama bin Laden, the master planner of these attacks is still at large. Now whether Bin Laden would issue a statement today to celebrate his victory against the US infidels, we will find out soon. For America, the war on Iraq will definitely take its toll on the coming Presidential race, where Sen. John McCain is enjoying a slight lead against Sen. Barrack Obama. Indeed, the outcome of the US Presidential race will depend largely on how the Iraq issue would be accepted by the US voters.

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Talking about terror threats, I couldn’t believe my ears when I read the reports that the Sinulog Festivities might be downsized or worse, cancelled because of a new Commission on Audit (COA) ruling barring City Hall officials from donating funds for the Sinulog Festivities. This is the problem of the Philippines today. Despite the presence of a very narrow minded, stupid COA policies, there is still massive corruption in the government especially with almost all government national agencies.

So why should Cebu City officials be scared of COA’s “terror” threat on our Tourism Industry? In my book, COA is a post-audit agency, tasked to look for highly-irregular activities, yet where was COA years ago when Cebu City hosted the country’s most successful fiesta that has become the country’s top tourism drawer? Cancel the Sinulog and you might as well kill our tourism industry, thanks to senseless and mindless COA officials!

The main issue here is whether the monies that were given for the Sinulog Festivities were found in some government official’s pockets. As of today, not a single case of corruption or even misappropriation of funds were filed against any of the Cebu City officials nor anyone from the Sinulog Foundation or its various committees. Who is the person responsible for this COA ruling so we can hound him and ask him questions? So far, the COA official who issued this new ruling is faceless to many Cebuanos. Let him come out so we can interrogate this person!

If we downsize or kill the Sinulog festivities this coming January, it will result in a massive reduction of foreign tourists who’ve enjoyed the Sinulog Festival. Should we allow our tourism industry to die because of this stupid COA ruling? I think not! Again, let’s see the face of this COA person so we can question him, otherwise we might just kiss our Tourism Industry goodbye!