Once more about the mangoes of Kang-Irag!

The article we wrote about the takeover by the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) of the fabled Boracay Island seems to have struck a discordant cord among our readers, many of them thanking me for reminding them of what happened to Cebu’s Kang-Irag golf course and the once famous Argao Beach Resort, tourism icons in Cebu that have been wiped off the face of the earth and our tourism map, thanks to the bungling idiots running the PTA!

Let me add something that we already wrote many times in the past… mangoes! Until this day, not a single report has come out of the PTA on how much the PTA earned from the thousand-plus mango trees around the hundred-hectare golf course. I wrote that article years ago when someone reported to me that he saw hundreds of mangoes on the ground floor of the house of the former PTA manager and the guy who reported this was sure that the mangoes came from Kang-Irag.

No doubt, the PTA in Cebu knows exactly how many mango trees and other fruit-bearing trees there are in the Kang-Irag golf course. So how come they never gave a report on how much the PTA was earning from those mango trees, given the fact that the land is owned by the Philippine government? Worse of all, when we wrote that article, no one cared to make any investigation into this even to this day. So, someone in the government who controls Kang-Irag must now be a millionaire given the fact that someone is making money from a government property!

The facts are very simple. The Kang-Irag properties are under the control of the PTA and therefore, all fruit-bearing trees should be properly accounted for… after all, the PTA already lost its income from the Kang-Irag golf course, which used to earn tourist dollars! Hence, the only income remaining in Kang-Irag would naturally be derived from the mango trees. But there’s no transparency coming from the PTA at all. They run it very secretively akin to the Priory of Sion.

As for the PTA’s taking over Boracay, I got this text from a friend, who asked that his name be withheld: "Brod, I fully agree with you. While the idea of placing Boracay under the control of the national government is okay, the PTA is the wrong agency to run it. They don’t have the competence to manage (it). All the tourist properties they managed are bankrupt and now for sale. Doing this to Boracay might ruin our nation’s tourism jewel."

Here’s another text forwarded to me by Toti Cariño: "This move by the National Gov’t to place Bora under PTA is foolish… H20 system run n operated by dem in Bora is ineffective… proof dat they don’t have competence right in Bora itself… We’ll fight this one… PTA does not even wish to use d recycled H20 to recharge H20 aquifer… dumping it on d sea… algae blooming bec of der practice… PTA is d no. 1 environmental violator in Bora."

What I even gathered was worse than I thought… this takeover scheme was actually designed to allow a special group of people dubbed the EPG to hold operational control and supervision over Boracay. As of press time, I still don’t know what EPG means, but it sure sounds like an Elite Pinoy Group to me! From what I gathered, this group is apparently composed of owners of resorts (many of them from Manila) now operating in Boracay. Now if this group controls Boracay, therefore any potential new investor to Boracay would have to pass through the eye of the proverbial needle to invest there… unless they end up with some kind of "cashabutan" with them.

Like I’ve said, who are the shadowy faces behind the EPG? Why can’t we see them come out in the open? I’m always worried whenever people with vested interests are given powers by the government. But perhaps the biggest question here is, why can’t the national government teach Aklan how to run things themselves? Isn’t this what good governance is all about?

Mind you, in Cebu, the upcoming Malapascua Island, which is a dead-ringer for Boracay up in northern Cebu, has been taken over by the Office of the Governor… and we applaud this move by Gov. Gwen Garcia in order to put some kind of order in Malapascua. But certainly, Gov. Gwen didn’t go out and ask Malacañang to let the PTA run Malapascua given the poor, dismal and even criminal record that the PTA has in Cebu. Once more, we ask the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas to take the PTA to task for coming up with deals grossly disadvantageous to the government. Someone should be punished or jailed for the PTA’s fiasco in Cebu!

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Friday night, I brought my kids to the Ayala Center to watch the exhibit of new cars and when the promo girls handed me a brochure of the show, I discovered to my disgust that Worldbex Services International, which is handling the auto show, claimed it to be the "1st Cebu Auto Show!" Excuse me! But we’ve held many auto shows in Cebu no one can even remember when the first auto show was held here. I huffed to the service booth and asked the people there who was the head of Worldbex International. The name I got was a Mr. Joseph Ang. Unfortunately, he wasn’t around for me to talk to him.

Let me clarify that we’re not trying to be petty here… we just want organizers to tell the whole truth about their promotions and not make any false claims. For many years now, Cebu has been holding many auto shows in various places like the Sacred Heart Gym, SM and Ayala! In recent years, the Ayala Center, through their allied companies like Honda and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), has changed its auto show title to Auto Madness! I know this because I always go to see the auto shows in Cebu!

I was just surprised why this time, the Ayala Center’s top people led by Clavel Tongco allowed Mr. Joseph Ang to make this wrongful claim… as if Cebu was so damned backward that it was the very first time we’ve ever had an auto show! Excuse me, Mr. Ang, but you’ve made a false claim by selling to the Cebuano public that your auto show is the first ever held in Cebu! Whatever happened to that often-repeated slogan "Truth in Advertising?"

And to think, they even brought in Gov. Gwen Garcia and the Cebu Chamber of Commerce’s Francis Monera during the launching of their show! I believe you guys in Worldbex International owe Gov. Gwen and the people of Cebu an explanation and an apology! While we’re at it, just in case someone gets the idea and sponsors a grand prix in Cebu… let me say it here that Cebu already held a grand prix way back in 1969 at the recently opened North Reclamation Area — not only a car race, but a motorcycle race as well. That was during the time of then Mayor Serging Osmeña Jr., father of our present Mayor Tommy Osmeña.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns in The Freeman can also be accessed through The Philippine STAR website (www.philstar.com). He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.