Good news, bad news and beautiful faces

Let this column be a pot-pourri of good news, bad news and beautiful faces.

Despite everything (need I narrate them?), close to two million tourists visited the Philippines in 2002, up 7.7 percent from the previous year’s total of 1.7 million, Tourism Secretary Dick Gordon told the Bulong Pulungan forum at the Westin Philippine Plaza last Tuesday. That’s the good news. And shame on you for letting Thailand’s 10-million tourist arrival record burst your bubble! That’s the bad news (for Filipinos).

Gordon was an unexpected guest at the forum–but give him the microphone and the former Ateneo cheerleader will waste no time. The year 2001 was the "nadir" as far as Philippine tourist arrivals were concerned, he conceded.

But not to worry, Gordon promised. The year 2003 will be much better, especially with the projected opening of the new Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in April.

Gordon said Makati has just been declared the shopping capital of Asia by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and to kick this off, there will be a big sale in all major malls and department stores on Jan. 19.

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Other guests at the forum included Bobby Tanyag, vice president for marketing of Unioil. Unioil, I discovered, is a 100 percent-owned Filipino firm which imports fuel from a refinery in South Korea that boasts among the most modern technology in the world, resulting in very clean gas.

Tanyag says two more oil price hikes are to be expected in the next few weeks, not necessarily from Unioil.

Also present at the forum was former Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor who predicted that firms engaged in the business of relaxation are going to make a windfall this year.

"Aromatherapy will be very big this year. Firms that are into gardening and hydroponics will be much sought after. The world is so full of stress people will pay good money to pamper themselves and relax." (To that Manila Standard editor-in-chief Jullie Yap Daza quipped, "Sex is relaxing, and it’s free!")

Myrna Yao, CEO of Richwell trading–the firm that brings to us Barbie, V-Tech, Fisher Price, Sesame St., Barney, Cosco, among others–says Barbie dolls were swept off the shelves this season. But the bad news is, Richwell is ceasing the manufacture of Barbie dolls in the Mattel Plant in Libis because of high production costs. This plant produced 200,000 Barbie dolls, about half the total of Barbies sold in the Philippines last year.

But she assured us that the workers displaced by the closure have already been absorbed by other manufacturing plants.

Henceforth, all the Barbies you buy in the Philippines will be foreign-made. The good news is, Myrna expects to sell these imported Barbies at a cheaper price

"(It’s) nice to buy Filipino, but if the only way to be able to give consumers a cheaper doll will be to import them, then we will have to import them," says Myrna.

In Repose

STAR’s Allure columnist, model and photographer Joanne Zapanta-Andrada will hold her first solo photo exhibit entitled, In Repose, starting on Jan. 15 at the Epson Gallery, third floor Bldg. A, SM Megamall.

After almost two decades as a model, Zapanta-Andrada has gone full circle, taking up the challenge of creating art behind the camera instead of in front of it. For Zapanta-Andrada, In Repose is a series of images depicting the "quieter, lighter side of life." A UNESCO commissioner for the committee on culture, she credits uber-photographer Jun de Leon for having introduced her to the world of photography. "After so many years, he probably got so sick of hearing me ask what an aperture was in relation to the shutter speed! He taught me how to see images first and how to trust my instincts, whether I was shooting the photograph or modeling for it. Eventually, I acquired some formal training in the technical side of the craft. But as any painter, sculptor or photographer will tell you, beauty can be elusive and to be able to spot it is key to one’s growth as an artist."

"I consider myself a work in progress," shares Zapanta-Andrada. "There is so much to learn, so much to grasp and to translate. I chose to present a simple collection that may be considered a respite from what seem to be uncertain and melancholy times. Most of the photographs are of individuals whose inner beauty radiate outward–whether they are children who want to play dress-up, young women who lie languidly as they engage in interesting banter or Renaissance men looking straight at you, all my subjects are characters who have had an impact on my growth both as an artist and as a human being."

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