Tourism Law: A new collar for the same dog?

Finally, after a long debate on its pros and cons, the National Tourism Policy Act of 2009 or Republic Act no. 9593 was signed by Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) to highlight the One Visayas Summit on Climate Change held at the Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort Hotel in Lapu-Lapu City, one of the newest tourism facilities in Mactan Island.

Under this newly-signed Tourism law, the three corporate bodies under the Department of Tourism (DOT) will be reorganized into three separate bodies. The Philippine Convention Visitors Corporation (PCVC) will be renamed the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) to market and promote the country, while the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) will be renamed the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (PIEZA) to regulate and supervise tourism business zones and the Duty-Free Philippines will be named Duty-Free Philippines Corp. (DFPC).

Will this new law put more teeth into the country’s Tourism Industry? This law sounds to me like changing the collar of the same dog. I submit that I haven’t read the newly-signed law; someone from the DOT ought to tell me how and why changing the names of the previous DOT organizations can speed up things in the DOT. Will this be a change for the better or for the worse?

For instance, my favorite pet peeve is the PTA that took over the Kang-Irag Golf course up in Kang-Irag, which once had a beautiful Gary Player or Black Knight designed Golf course. When the PTA took over this Tourism Development, it was 85% complete and in fact the last time I played in that course was with Sen. Serge Osmeña. Now pray tell me whether the newly-reorganized PTA will bring back the Kang-Irag Golf course? Let me remind our readers that the PTA gave this project to Mr. Jose Go and in doing so, we lost a magnificent golf course when, in the midst of our Tourism Boom, we needed all the golf course available in Metro Cebu as it is one of the top drawers for foreign tourists. So can we bring back the Kang-Irag?

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The Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has disqualified all the seven bidders that submitted bids to automate the May 2010 polls for various technical reasons that the SBAC found in this huge P11.3 billion project. While Comelec officials assured the public that something like this was expected and that there was still ample time to finalize the bidding and come up with the winning bidder.

This is just too uncomfortably close for comfort. We’ve only got a year left until the elections are held. But like what we’ve already written a couple of weeks ago, automation is only one of the things that assures the electorate that we will have clean and honest elections. Perhaps a bigger problem is the reality that our public teachers are just too beholden to our local government officials, they would do anything for their political patrons, lest they’d be transferred to the far-flung areas of the municipality or the Province of the City.

We already cited what happened to the Punta Engaño High School where its principal patron, Mr. Efrain Pelaez whom school officials confer their annual award to thank for his generosity, suddenly told him that there won’t be any award for this year’s graduation because Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza was going to attend the graduation rites. In the end, after telling Mr. Pelaez that he is no longer welcome, the graduating students gave Jun Pelaez their own plaque of appreciation before the embarrassed school officials, and worse of all Mayor Radaza was a no-show to their school’s commencement exercises.

This happened in a small corner in the island of Mactan, but I’m very positive that similar cases are happening elsewhere, especially when the incumbent politicos use their current positions to cement their advantage over potential challengers to their elective positions. Now is the time to expose these politicos so that the people will be informed as to who are these politicians who use their power to their advantage.

I heard that certain groups of Non-Government-Offices (NGO) will be concentrating their efforts to expose those who cheat in the coming elections. I dare say that they should start investigating those teachers, especially those whose moral compass have gone haywire, who wouldn’t blink an eye when they cheat for their political patrons! This is why I suggested to the Comelec and the Department of Education (DepEd) to change the schedules of teachers. For instance, those belonging to the far-flung areas, should be assigned to the urban areas, because they have nothing to lose as they are already assign far and away. So let’s hear it from the Comelec!