Sell Cebu, Bohol, Boracay, Palawan instead of RP!

I got a call from Tourism Secretary Richard "Dick" Gordon Wednesday evening for a short talk on many issues. Secretary Gordon was in Cebu with company US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone to visit the Gilutuongan Marine Sanctuary in Olango Island, just across Mactan Island. He reported to me that the US Ambassador was "satisfied" with the security maintenance in Cebu province.

Indeed, despite all the negatives happening with our beloved Philippines, Cebu continues to attract foreign tourists…South Koreans have now beaten the Japanese as our number one visitor in Cebu. Well, with a bitter winter already sweeping the Korean Peninsula, no doubt the Philippines can provide a warm getaway for our fellow Asian neighbors.

Meanwhile, I was told that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña suggested to Secretary Gordon that in order to thwart the negative publicity of the Philippines, he should sell Cebu separately. Well, this is exactly what I also told Dick in our phone conversation…that if the tourism department sold Boracay, Palawan, Bohol or Siargao separately…this might just be the trick to bring back the luster into our otherwise moribond tourism industry.

Any marketing or management student in our major schools or universities has probably been taught that Cebu was able to promote itself even during the dark days of martial law when we sold ourselves as "As Island in the Pacific." If it worked then, there’s no reason why it should not work again!

Just think of it… you’re basking in the beaches of Boracay or in the pristine powder white beaches of Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island or in Panglao, Bohol… your thoughts are never about your security or that a bomb might explode nearby. That happens only in urban centers or in the islands farthest south of the Philippines. But then, if tourism brochures sell only the Philippines…then by name recall… a potential visitor who has heard on CNN about certain terrorist problems that we are having would surely be concerned about his safety and security. Sell Cebu, sell Boracay, Palawan or Bohol…show them pictures of the resorts and surely, that would entice them to come and visit.

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Here’s a letter that I got from a group that calls itself "The Concerned Professors of Pol Science" based in Iloilo City. Here’s the full letter: "Dear Mr. Avila… The concerned Professors of Political Science from Iloilo City are happy to read your column ‘Inside Cebu’ found in the pages of The Philippine STAR. Aside from Carmen N. Pedrosa, you are the second columnist who came out openly in favor of constitutional reforms and for the parliamentary federal system of government.

"We are furnishing you and The Freeman with two couples of the ‘Notes on the Parliamentary System Government.’ We hope that this brief research will be able to help you and the columnists of The Freeman write more often about the need for constitutional reforms and the parliamentary federal system of governance. We also hope that your writer group in Cebu and The Freeman could edit and add some facts and reprint or xerox some copies for free distribution to some cities and municipalities in the Eastern Visayas.

"Indeed, our last and best hope for a better system of governance is through the non-partisan Constitutional Convention and the parliamentary federal system of government."

I can only guess that this letter was signed by Atty. Leopoldo F. Causing, the chairman of research and publication committee of this group. However, I’d like to point out clearly that long before our dear friend Chit Pedrosa was writing about this we were already clamoring for a constitutional convention even before the time of then President Fidel V. Ramos simply because we already knew then that this Constitution was at best…faulty!

More importantly, I’d like to correct the misimpression that I am for a parliamentary system no, I’m not, but I’ll give their booklet a look and see if they can convince me with this. I don’t think that a parliamentary system will work simply because we’ve already been there and tried this system and yes…it didn’t work! Sure, it could be because this happened within a dictatorial environment. The United States is a federal system, but not a parliamentary one and this is what I’m batting for.

Another reason why I don’t think and believe that a parliamentary system would work in the Philippines is due to the undeniable fact that Filipinos are very similar to Italians in our song, our art and skill. We’re symptico’s and passionate about our politics…but look at the Italian Parliament…they seem to have a new government every year… to the point that no one there even knows who is the current Italian prime minister, except perhaps the people working in the Italian Embassy.

But like I said…I’m giving this group the benefit of the doubt. However, what is important to note is that…our clamor for a concon and a federal system isn’t limited only in Cebu…they are also asking this in Iloilo. Perhaps, you folks should get in touch with my good friend, your Congressman Raul Gonzales whom I have not seen in many years. I’ll probably drop by in Iloilo to meet with this group so we can all be united in one cause. This should be a message to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) that while a concon is not her priority, the people in the South think it is.

Like what we wrote long ago…the Philippines is akin to an old rickety and broken down bus…brand new back in 1946 when we got Independence, hence, the clamor of the passengers is to have the bus changed… but alas, some people only want to change the driver…so no matter who the driver or the President is, the bus would never ran properly. Yessir, we may need a new driver, but I believe that we also need a new bus!

So now if we are merely shifting to a parliamentary system and still retain a highly-centralized system of government…it just won’t work because we are merely shifting the reins of power to the prime minister from the President. Indeed, the solution is to federalize so each state can grow on their own speed and initiative. Then, it won’t mater if we are a presidential system or not.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.