DPWH should have a culture of maintenance!

The FREEMAN’s Sunday editorial talked about Tourism Supremacy. For most of last week, Cebu played host to the 6th International Tourism Forum for Parliamentarians and Local Authorities under the auspices of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNTWO) at the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa. Delegates to this international forum are members of parliament or members of congress or local government officials like governors or mayors. A lifestyle seminar by Russians was also held at the Waterfront Hotel.

That Cebu has made its niche on the Tourism World is no longer in question. We’ve truly come a long way from the days of our first tourism campaign as “An Island in the Pacific”. Cebu’s Tourism has already matured. So where do we go from here? Tourism Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano is asking us to acquire a “Culture of Tourism”. But then what Ace is asking us isn’t new. This has been asked of us since we’ve embraced Tourism as a major industry for Cebu.

But we’re not even halfway in having a Culture of Tourism. We see dilapidated taxis and jeepneys plying our roads that should no longer be allowed on the streets because they’re just too old or too poorly maintained. Just yesterday morning, there was this jeepney left on the road by its driver because it could not go any further. Without a doubt, jeepney drivers or operators couldn’t care less that we have one of the world’s worse mass transit systems. This is why I’m fully supportive of the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or its Brazilian equivalent, the Stairless Jeepney that would have solved the problems we have with our present setup.

The Philippine government has done a lot to boost our tourism growth, thanks to people like Tourism USEC Phineas Alburo, Regional Director Patria “Dawnee” Roa, our tour operators led by the Cebu Association of Tour Operators (CATO) and our local government officials. However, there is one government agency that needs to be jolted to join the Tourism bandwagon. I’m referring to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPHW). All that we need from them is to light up those confounded lampposts and fix our roads.

What we need from the DPWH is a Culture of Maintenance! Instead, what we are getting are excuses of all kinds. They have perfected the art. If I were running DPWH, I would assign a team just to look for potholes and if they cannot cover them in a week’s time, they don’t get their salaries! Today, Cebuano motorists have become familiar with potholes, like a child, watching them grow from a small hole into a huge “palangana” where it swallows your vehicle. DPWH ought to get their acts together if we are to continue with our tourism growth. Surely you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to turn on those lampposts?

I attended the blessing of the Clubhouse in Amara last Saturday in Catarman, Liloan and I couldn’t help but notice their beautiful lampposts. I would like to believe that these lampposts must be expensive; after all, Amara is an Ayala project. I asked Ms. Tetta Baad if she could get me the figures as to how much those lampposts costs because they’re certainly expensive-looking and light up the place beautifully. I just hope for the sake of DPWH that their figures would show that the Amara lampposts would be more expensive than what the DPWH bought for Metro Cebu. More on this when I get this information.

Meanwhile during her keynote speech for the 6th International Tourism Forum for Parliamentarians and Local Authorities Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) gave a very stirring speech on our tourism industry, that tourism can indeed create more jobs and opportunities where there were none before. She cited a new program dubbed “Grassroots Entrepreneurship for Eco-Tourism (GREET) which is a community-based tourism initiative for the countryside. This is akin to Governor Gwen F. Garcia’s backbone “Suroy-Suroy” Tourism program that was hatched way back in the year 2004 when Gov. Gwen first became governor.

One Eco-Tourism program that I saw on Channel News Asia was in Bali, Indonesia, where instead of having a resort on the beach, they had it in the middle of a farming community. So, can we have an Eco-Tourism in the middle of an agricultural land that was CARPED? Again, if we need to truly have Tourism supremacy, we must hurdle such problems so we can truly move faster in our Tourism growth.