So far so good for Sec. Bernadette Puyat of DOT

I dropped by Manila for a day and met with Capt. Joy Roa of Air Safari who was doing a shoot in his aerodrome… and it was good to see each other, especially that we both love aviation and motorcycles. But he has to leave for Sweden and Norway yesterday for another of his Air Safari shoots.

I also met with my old friend, Consul Robert “Bobby” Joseph of Latvia who informed me that this coming Thursday, the Rotary Club of Manila will be holding the 14th Tourism Awards at the Ballroom of New World Makati Hotel. I have to thank the Rotary Club of Manila for giving me a Columnist of the Year award five years ago. The Rotary Club of Manila is the oldest service club in the Philippines and will be celebrating its 100 years next year and for sure, I will be attending that historic event.

For this year’s Tourism Awards of Rotary Club of Manila, they are giving a Hall of Fame Award to Philippine Airlines (PAL) president and CEO Jaime J. Bautista. Then Noel Flores Manankil, president of Clark Development Corp. for Ecozone Tourism category and Enrique “Rickie” Yap Jr., executive vice president of Manila Hotel for the Heritage Hotel Tourism category. Then to Miguel Alexis Legaspi, president of Ayala Hotels & Resorts for the Hotel Development Tourism category.

Ma. Imelda Josefa “Imee” Romualdez Marcos, Ilocos Norte Governor for the Cultural and Community Tourism category. Julie Yap Daza, a Manila Bulletin columnist is awarded for Print and Media category while Chef Pablo “Boy’ Logro for Filipino Culinary Tourism category and Vanessa Suatengco, general manager of Diamond Hotel for Hotel Management Tourism category. These are just a few names that the Rotary Club of Manila has recognized for this year.

I was with my good friend Bobby Joseph yesterday morning and I asked him what has happened to the Madrid Fusion? I wrote this question in this corner last April 5, and Bobby simply reiterated his stern thoughts about the confusion over Madrid Fusion and the most common is that Madrid Fusion sells Madrid or Spain in the Philippines and in Asia.

One thing I’ve learned from Madrid Fusion is that the media they invite comes from Spain and most of them are interested in their particular chefs rather than what they can find in the country. Perhaps the biggest negative is that the foreign chefs are not paid and they go home to Spain not giving Filipino gastronomy anything of importance for our country. When Madrid Fusion was tried in Mexico with a five-year contract, the Mexican government stopped it on the second year due to poor results.

Madrid Fusion was created by then Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, supposedly for two years, but they extended it to five years when they finally made this project a go. But in the end, with tourism growing by leaps and bounds in the Philippines the P120 million per annum of Madrid Fusion was never felt in tourism areas of the country. We should have invested in tourism advertising in Japan, Korea and China, which would have made a greater impact on our tourism industry.

But what made a change in the issue of the Madrid Fusion is the sudden change of leadership in the Department of Tourism (DOT), which is now headed by Sec. Bernadette Romulo Puyat. This abrupt change in the DOT resulted in the supposed termination of all Tourism undersecretaries, except for Undersecretary Bong Bengzon. This makes me wonder what happened to CESO employees of the DOT? These people just cannot be fired unless for a grievous cause?

The new DOT Secretary is doing right in investigating all the problems that have beset the DOT in all those years, including Madrid Fusion. This is perhaps her way of following the footsteps of her father former Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo who has rendered a great career in government service. So in cleaning up the DOT, which is certainly full of worms, she can run this facility knowing that she has cleaned it thoroughly. So the question is, how far will she go? People I’ve met are saying that she is interested in running for a Senate seat… so is this true or not?

Meanwhile, there are a lot of unresolved issues in the DOT that was mismanaged by the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA), which is now called Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA). In Cebu Province alone, there are still PTA, now TIEZA issues that have remained unresolved because of the change in PTA or TIEZA leadership.

In short, Sec. Puyat still has a long way to go in cleaning up the DOT until she has looked at all the issues that time has apparently forgotten. I have been in touch with DOT Regional Director-7 Shalimar Hofer Tamano on the many issues that the DOT needs to fix in Cebu before Sec. Puyat could give it a clean bill of health!

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