Protecting or extorting from Pinoy tourists?

There are only 17 “mega-diversity” countries that together contain two-thirds of the earth’s flora and fauna. Proudly the Philippines is one of them. Sadly it is also one of 34 global biodiversity hotspots. The tens of thousands of endemic Philippine plant and animal species awfully are endangered near extinction.

Threats come mostly from unrestricted woodcutting and mining, destructive fishing, and creeping urbanization. The neglect is stark. Only 45 of the 128 key biodiversity areas listed in the Wildlife Act (RA 9147) get official protection. If even with forest rangers and bay watches these KBAs still are invaded by poachers, what more the 83 unguarded others? The 128 KBAs comprise six million hectares of mountains, lakes and coasts, a fifth of the Philippine land area that should be preserved. But because in them thrive the most edible game and profitable timber, they are the foremost targets for exploitation. Fifty-one “candidates” for KBA status are at risk of the same fate. (For more on KBAs, visit http://www.scribd.com/doc/49461227/Priority-Sites-for-Conservation-in-the-Philippines-Key-Biodiversity-Areas)

Potentially more revenues can be earned from preserving a KBA than, say, opening it up to mining. An example is Mount Matalingahan in Palawan, which conservationists and government scientists studied in May 28. Land use options and total economic value were taken into account. Their conclusion was revealing. By keeping the forest and river ecosystem, the mountain would return P95 billion over 25 years. All this, from water, fishery and agriculture to surrounding towns, plus carbon trading. Ecotourism from the breathtaking waterfalls and other sceneries was not yet included. In contrast, only P15 billion would be derived from nickel mining, and gravel and sand quarrying. The cost of fully protecting the zone would be P115 million over the first five years. The average P23 million a year protection cost can be derived from the prospective P603 million to be collected from water use.

Conservation pays.

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It’s bad enough that Filipinos are discriminated against on arriving at neighboring airports of Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong or Bali. Worse is when compatriots maltreat them on departing from the Philippines.

Perhaps because they have no one to turn to, readers have been complaining to newspapers about extortion by immigration officers. Allegedly they saw or were themselves victims pulled out of passport-check queues, then asked to produce unnecessary tourist documents. Singled out are those who look provincial — dark-skinned, flat-nosed, unfashionably dressed, thick accent. Officers supposedly demand proof that they can afford to travel abroad, like bankbooks or income tax returns. Now why would anyone carry such documents when touring? And isn’t travel now affordable for most, with Southeast Asian capitals as cheap as domestic Bohol, Banaue or Boracay?

At any rate, the harassed traveler purportedly would be brought to the supervisor’s room. There he’d be forced to show cash, usually foreign currency. Then the haggling begins for the right price to be let to board the plane. The longer the haggling takes, the bigger the risk becomes of losing the flight. From reports, the rate ranges from P5,000 to P50,000.

Sometimes other documents are demanded, like hotel bookings and tour vouchers at destinations. Now why should one let a nosy officer peek at his lodging arrangements; wasn’t martial law overthrown in ’86? Most absurd is when asked for certificates of employment, when the victims are tourists, not overseas workers.

Bureau of Immigration spokeswoman Maria Antoinette Mangrobang admitted to The STAR the intense questioning of travelers. Indeed officers ask for bankbooks, tax forms, and work papers from tourists, especially if headed for Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Supposedly, Mangrobang was quoted Monday, the cities are the usual jump-off points for undocumented employment in the Middle East. In effect, she acknowledged, they do demand non-tourist documents from Filipinos departing on tourist visas. All, she said, in the name of fighting human trafficking.

But how sure are they that the Filipino they are stopping is flying off to potential slavery abroad? What if they off-load a genuine traveler? Mangrobang said victims of maltreatment can always complain. Tell me about it.

Immigration deputy Siegfried Mison also told The STAR Tuesday that they had stopped 32,038 tourists from leaving from January to June. That’s 200 human-trafficking cases prevented each day, he beamed. But without proof that they were being trafficked, it means more like 200 extortion victims failing to pay up, hence offloaded, per day. Mison said they were referred to the Interagency Council Against Human Trafficking, for filing of criminal charges. He did not say against whom, the “tourist” for failing to show non-tourist documents, or the job recruiter? Out of the tens of thousands of Filipinos stopped from departing, only two cases have reached the court.

There must be a better way to fight human trafficking. And it shouldn’t be with Immigration, the least trained for it and most prone to abusing departing tourists.

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