Make Gloria Diaz a persona non grata in Cebu

It’s been a week since the Aug. 23 bungled hostage crisis at the Quirino Grandstand and it seems there’s been no let up in the commentaries, not just on print or radio and TV broadcast, but even in the coffeehouses of Metro Cebu and I’m sure it’s the same in Metro Manila. All because a week after this brouhaha, the investigation by the Senate has only told us what we already know . . . that the SWAT Team sent to end the hostage crisis where there to embarrass the nation of what kind of Keystone SWATs they are.

Over the long weekend, we checked in at the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa believing that it would be a ghost town; after all, there were a lot of cancellations of previous bookings especially coming from Hong Kong. To my complete surprise, the Shangri-la was fully-booked! Yes, there were a lot of Chinese tourists, but thanks to the creativity of the Shang’s marketing people, they immediately launched a low fare promo in the Ayala Mall, and soon, almost all my friends in Cebu where staying at the Shang!

All I can say is, someday, when the majority of Filipinos move a little notch higher, from the poor to the middle class, our domestic tourism alone would fill up all our hotels and resorts. If there was something good that came out of former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s “Long Weekend” program whereby national holidays that fall midweek is moved at the weekend, it has stirred our domestic tourism, thanks also to the cheap promotional fares of Cebu Pacific Air (CPA) and Philippine Airlines (PAL) where a lot of Filipinos can fly to their favorite destinations for a very low cost.

Of course, there is no denying that huge front-page photo of the thousands of Hong Kong residents who marched through downtown Hong Kong to denounce the Philippine government for botching the rescue operation. I just hope that someone ought to inform the people of Hong Kong that we too have already chastised the Philippine government for their shortcomings, their indifference and lack of leadership during a very sensitive crisis like that. If the people of Hong Kong are mad at this situation, they should know that we Filipinos are equally as indignant that this happened in our country!

For as long as the official report on that botched rescue attempt isn’t out in public, the speculation will never end… and whether they like it or not, a lot of people have already pre-judged this issue… so they better be careful what comes out of that report… this is not to mention that we can hope that the Government of Hong Kong would be satisfied with the result of our investigation. Meanwhile, they are also doing their own investigation.

Incidentally, if you didn’t know, the Travel Advisory that the Government of Hong Kong has issued against their citizens visiting the Philippines is a double-edged sword. While it may hurt our tourism industry, it also boomerangs on theirs. Why? Because at the height of the SARs scare, when the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) held a presscon, we learned that the Philippines came in 4th in tourist arrivals to Hong Kong, after the British, Australians and Americans. Filipinos are the top Asian tourists to visit Hong Kong at that time. Of course, Hong Kong now says that the number one visitors to Hong Kong are the Chinese from the mainland.

I really don’t have the latest figures, but I do know that there are still a lot of Filipinos who visit Hong Kong, like the families who visit Disneyland who bring their children with them. This is not to mention the huge number of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) working in Hong Kong. So the sooner that the Hong Kong government retracts that Travel Advisory to the Philippines, the better it will be for Hong Kong tourism.

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Another very hot issue burning the radio waves in Cebu and is as hot a topic as the botched rescue raid in Manila is the way Cebuanos are reacting very angrily at the statement of former Ms. Universe Ms. Gloria Diaz for making ethnic slurs against Cebuanos when she said, “Kasi when you think about a Cebuana can hardly speak English and of course Tagalog. Maybe she should answer in Bisaya.” First of all, I never thought that Venus Raj was a Bisaya… I thought she was a Bicolano? So why insult Cebuanos huh?

I got a text message from my good friend Ms. Mila Espina who wrote, “Pinoys love to make fun of errors in English when some of them do not know any better. Venus’ lack of depth or focus in her answer was the issue. The repetition of the word ‘Major’ maybe a result of stammering or loss of the right word. Some beauties in other countries make more mistakes in English. Are we not happy she landed in 4th place?” Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama already chastised Gloria Diaz and I’m all for censuring her and making her a “persona non grata” in Cebu… I hope she understands this Latin term.

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