Despite deficit, Suroy-Suroy was a big success!

There is a question begging for an answer as this issue has now become a huge news item. “What is the optimum or the right expenditure for the Suroy-Suroy” program? Apparently the Commission on Audit (CoA) came up with an Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) that was publicized not only in the local dailies, but via the national news, as well, where State Auditor Charlita Leopoldo revealed that the Province of Cebu spent P11,455,064.81 for last year’s Suroy-Suroy activities. But it earned only P3,793,319.00.  In short, the Province of Cebu lost P7,661,745.81.

That news report indicated that the Province of Cebu “overspent” this amount. Others say that the Province of Cebu lost money and therefore the Suroy-Suroy program is failure. So the first question is, was the Suroy-Suroy program designed to be a revenue generation as far as the Province of Cebu is concerned? This is a question that only still suspended Gov. Gwen F. Garcia or Acting Gov. Agnes Magpale can answer.

I would like to believe that the Suroy-Suroy Program was designed to bring Cebu’s tourist boom a.k.a. Cebooom to the far-flung areas of the Province of Cebu and therefore, it was not supposed to generate revenues as far as I have been led to believe. If the Suroy-Suroy is not a revenue generation program, then the question to ask is, was it successful in bringing Cebooom to the far-flung areas of Cebu Province? In my book, the Suroy-Suroy Program is a stunning success as far as the promotion of many potential tourism areas within the Province of Cebu is concerned.

That Camotes Island is now frequented by local or domestic tourists together with foreign tourists despite its inherent inaccessibility is a mute testimony of the success of this program. You want to me to name more areas? There’s Daanbantayan, especially Malapascua, then Sta. Fe in Bantayan Island where the resorts are getting full everyday, then there’s the tourism boom in Santander due to the whale shark sightings. All these means is that the towns greatly benefited from the Suroy-Suroy Program and the resorts in those areas are definitely earning money, money that the COA cannot see.

This is the damn problem with COA officials, they only see facts and figures, plus or minus and then come up with a simple analysis that the Suroy-Suroy program was a revenue deficit. Aren’t these people smart??? Shouldn’t they have looked at how much money the Province of Cebu should have spent to promote those areas in Cebu? Mind you tourism promotion costs a great deal of money. Sure, there were many “freebies” given by the Province of Cebu to the Suroy-Suroy Program, but they are the very people who have been targeted to help promote the Suroy-Suroy Program.

Finally, I really don’t know why all of the sudden the COA, through State Auditor Charlita Leopoldo, came up with the facts and figures now about the Suroy-Suroy Program. It just makes me wonder why she didn’t complain about this expense in the previous years. Or was there also a report, but she didn’t have it published? Whatever her intentions are, even if the program reveals a deficit, it doesn’t make the Suroy-Suroy Program a failure. The fact alone that tourists are already going to those far-flung places is testament to the success of the Suroy-Suroy Program.

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Still on the issue of cost vs. benefit, this reminds me of my days as Chairman of the Cebu City Traffic Operations & Management (CITOM). Back then, Cebu City Officials led by then Mayor Tomas Osmeña always took extra care in ensuring that the operational cost of running CITOM would be offset by the number of apprehensions that the city government would earn as part of the revenues of Cebu City. But then, our city auditors can only look at the facts and figures without going to the extra savings that the city would benefit from a well-managed traffic system.

A best example was when we had enforcers strictly implement the No Parking zones and illegally parked vehicles get clamped. This later developed into vehicles getting towed. Indeed, when a vehicle gets clamped, it is still blocking the road, while when you tow an offending vehicle, the street gets cleared of the obstruction.

Anyway, the program was so successful; it resulted in motorists obeying our traffic rules. When fewer vehicles violate these No Parking signs, the more our traffic enforcers apprehend them. When finally the streets of Cebu were cleared, then Mayor Osmeña told me to reduce the complement of CITOM, using as an argument that if motorist obey traffic rules, then we don’t need traffic enforcers anymore. When that was done, traffic violations increased once more. It’s called a “Catch-22” situation.

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