What matters most

The heat of summer glowers in relentless fervor. I have to bring a towel and a flask of cold water everyday to keep me from giving in to the sweltering sun. I learned from Jessica Soho that one just has to wet the towel with cool water and apply the moistened cloth to the nape, and voila! the coolness will permeate and give instant relief. Of course this has to be sustained with drinking enough water so that one avoids dehydration.

I learned from my nutritionist, Maám Linda Binghay that one should not use too much sunblock for it does not really do much good. And that could be the reason why the “butandings’’ abhor it, aside from the fact that it irritates their eyes.

Along with the summer heat we can expect a flurry of guests from all over the world, who may be visiting Cebu to enjoy the beaches, with Boracay now under a lot of scrutiny. I wish they could clean up the waters in Bora and soon. Not just because business is suffering in that area but because there are residents there, who were even there before Boracay became a sensation lived and enjoyed the waters of the place. They deserve their island back.

As tourist pour into Cebu, we must be prepared for the influx. Oh yes, we welcome them. But we also must be sure that when they leave, we still keep our beaches clean, and our other resorts as pristine as they were before not just for the next batch of visitors, but for us locals, who really live here and who are the first to suffer the brunt of pollution when it stays.   As it is, we already have enough problems of our own. Traffic, septage, drainage, and the containment of both liquid and solid wastes.

My wish is that we will have proper policing of the tourist areas so wastes are well handled, tourists are well-guided and not swindled, and there will not be a deluge of pickpockets and snatchers or swindlers who prey on the unsuspecting visitor.

In the administration of Secretary Ace Durano, public utility drivers and those in the service industry were trained on how to assist a tourist. I was tempted to say courteous and facilitative, but I refuse to succumb to the bandwagon marking Filipinos as discourteous and unruly. As a people, I would like to believe that majority of us are kind, and helpful.

In our recent trip to Vietnam, my family and I found ourselves in a quandary as to how to communicate with the taxi driver so we could be brought to our hotel from a mall. As we tried to talk to the driver, we simply could not get him to understand. A kind lady approached us and asked if she could help. It was a relief to find someone who could speak English. And as she instructed the driver, she also told us how much fare to expect.

Kind hearts like that are what really make people want to revisit a place.

In Singapore, the tourist business is doing really well. I like Singapore, in spite of the issues we had with them long ago about our being boisterous. I feel safe there because the taxi drivers are honest and they do not overtax you. In fact, they refund you if you go beyond your drop off point. Charging only what is fair. 

But in my few travels abroad, I still love the Philippines. Our people are gentle, friendly, kind. If there are those who do not follow the rules, they are not the majority. They do not represent all of us. That is why I always detest it when fellow Filipinos would talk condescendingly of our race. If we do not respect our own countrymen, how can we expect others to respect us? The Filipino is mainly why tourists come back, we are hospitable and convivial, which is actually very Asian. A guest is always welcomed with the best no matter the economic status. 

I pray we remain congenial even under this summer heat, for the warmth of our hearts is what matters most and is what keeps.