Kudos to Sec. Ace Durano for a job well done!

A couple of weeks ago a minor debate ensued when RTourism industry insiders in Cebu made an appeal to the incoming Aquino administration to keep Tourism Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano as Tourism boss. But this was disputed no less than by outgoing Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who quipped that under the watch of Ace Durano, Cebu lost its coveted title as the country’s number one tourism destination. The statement from the outgoing Cebu City Mayor and incoming Congressman in the South District could be borne out of the fact that he wanted Ace Durano to run for governor against Gov. Gwen Garcia, but Sec. Durano refused him.

So allow me to give my ten centavos worth on this issue… that the tourism players in Cebu have no right to demand for the retention of Sec. Ace Durano. To the victor, goes the spoils as pundits would say; hence they should give President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III the sole decision to put in his own man to hold sway in the Tourism Department.

With that said, let me say that Tourism Sec. Ace Durano handled the Tourism Department superbly and if indeed Cebu has lost that title as the number one tourism destination, I don’t blame this on Sec. Durano, but rather I blame it on the officialdom of Cebu, which has not done its share in keeping Cebu spic and span. The last time that one can consider Cebu as sparkling and beautiful was during the 12th ASEAN Summit on Jan. 2007 when our roads where well-paved, well-lighted and the garbage collected. three short years later, Cebu has once again become like an unkempt pretty girl.

But more importantly, under the watch of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with Sec. Ace Durano, the country has experience an uncanny growth in tourism from different parts of the country. Come now, no one has heard of CamSur or that Cagayan de Oro would have its own tourism industry. Then there’s the tourism industry that has sparked the economy of Bohol. Meanwhile, typical of the Filipino’s attitude in sitting on its laurels, Cebu really didn’t do much to entice tourists to come to Cebu’s shores. 

In fairness to Sec. Durano, he even spent money to beautify the Parian Heritage Monument which was no longer lighted and unpainted. As a member of the Taytayan group which promotes Cebuano heritage, I even donated some money to Ms. Joy Uy of the steering committee for the cocktail party for the blessing of the monument, money that Cebu City should have spent.

Last Saturday, Mayor-elect Michael Rama met with the consultative group to map out plans for his administration and when the issue of tourism was discussed, I told the incoming Cebu City Mayor that because the Parian Heritage Monument was sculpted by Eduardo Castrillo, a non-Cebuano who had no basic knowledge of Cebu’s great history, he failed to feature the famous “Tres de Abril” uprising by the Cebu based Katipuneros, which unfortunately is not even written in Philippine history books even up to this time… thanks to the pro-Manila attitude of historians like Gregorio Zaide.

A couple of weeks ago, I posed a question before Philippine Historical Institute (PHI) Chairman Ambeth Ocampo when he was in Cebu to attend the Gabii sa Kabilin; “What major towns or cities where captured by the Katipuneros?” Of course, I answered this question… that on April 3, 1898, Cebuano Katipuneros led by Pantaleon Villegas a.k.a. Leon Kilat grabbed hold of Cebu City and sent the shocked Spaniards running and hiding at the Fort San Pedro. No Katipuneros had a similar victory they had in Cebu.

But just when Leon Kilat was victorious in starving out the Spaniards who were holed out of the fort, the Spanish Cruiser Don Juan Austria arrived in Cebu City with fresh troops and rounded up the Katipuneros. Leon Kilat met his fate from the hands of his own men, who betrayed him, stabbing him to death to offer his body to the Spaniards in return for clemency. But they were all subjected to the blood thirsty “Juez de cochillo”. While there are streets named after Leon Kilat and Tres de Abril, Cebu still has to come up with a monument to mark this historic Cebuano victory!

Cebu City is missing on our rich World War II history. For instance, the PT-boats that brought Gen. Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor to Cagayan de Oro (in a special mission, the same PT-boats also plucked Pres. Manuel Quezon and his cabinet in Bais, Negros Oriental) where destroyed in Kawit Island, Cebu that is now the SRP. Then Cebuano guerrillas captured the highest ranking Japanese Imperial officer in the Pacific War… which we already wrote. So all is not lost. Lately, Cebu was dubbed “Best Honeymoon Destination” during the awards night of the World Trade Fair 2010 held in Shanghai, China. This is something that we Cebuanos ought to be proud of… and a major accomplishment under the watch of Tourism Sec. Ace Durano.

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