While we squabble, Thailand’s tourism puts ours to shame

BANGKOK, Thailand – As expected, DENR Secretary Mike Defensor’s attempt to prove that the "Hello Garci" tapes were doctored fell on its face with a loud plop.

The truth is that everybody’s sick and tired of the issue. It’s been talked to death, by both sides. If as much energy, resources and passion were spent on educating our people, building up our economy, providing welfare and security to our citizens, and fighting crime, as is squandered on trying to oust President GMA, or defend her, our country would be well on the way to prosperity.

Our leaders and politicians continue to selfishly serve their own ends, pursue their ambitions, and the hell with the nation. Those at the top are struggling to stay in power, while gorging on the perks; those "out" of power are zealously engaged in eye-gouging, kick-boxing, no-holds-barred tactics to topple those topside, so they can replace them – and thus get hold of the perks for themselves. All the hi-falutin’ rhetoric about national interest, getting justice done, and punishing GMA for having "stolen" the Presidency – whether or not she did – can be summed up in two sentences: "Get out! I want your job!"

Even the Communists and Radical Leftists who are the most persistent "call in" types from the radio and televiewers group have the same refrain. They scream: "Gloria out! A committee of the people must take over running the country for the people’s good. We don’t want any TRAPOS (Traditional politicians) either!"

When asked how the members of the Committee of Salvation, or People’s Committee, will be chosen, the inevitable answer is: "By the people."

This does not mean that La Gloria’s "innocent" or "guilty!"

Let’s just have an "impeachment" proceeding that’s credible and fair – then get back to what really matters: making a living.

In fact, I wish we could ignore all the fakery, histrionics, and noise-making and just, as a people, keep on going. In the provinces, I’m assured, nobody’s listening. Most of the ruckus is in Metro Manila.

* * *

Even here in Bangkok, almost three hours by jet from Manila, I couldn’t escape from the echoes of the controversy.

On my cellphone yesterday came out a lengthy text message from Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson protesting "the false and malicious information" being peddled against him.

To begin with, Ping Lacson (GMA’s bete noir) declared: "I have not (as alleged in the newspaper) received a subpoena from Judge Barbara Miller or any California judge in relation to the handcuff case filed by Blanquita Pelaez against me, much less a threat to have me arrested should I refuse to be present in a supposed hearing thereat. My lawyer in the US, Mr. Cardoza has verified from the Almeda Court and has informed me through Atty. Sig Fortun that there is no such subpoena issued. Second, there is NO order from the court for me to pay Pelaez the amount of $1.72 million. Third, I did not pay Uniquest Pty. Ltd. of Australia $20,000, but the equivalent of $4,500 only for their services to conduct forensic analysis on the so-called Garci tape."

It’s disheartening that black propaganda continues to fly around – with those who "invent" lies so daring that they brazenly promote untruth as "fact" when such rubbish is easily verifiable.

Lacson himself has been accused of getting "witnesses" and "bribing" them to attack GMA, as Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye keeps on repeating as his sole witticism, running a "witness factory."

At the same time, if you’ll recall, Lacson was at the receiving end of wild accusations about overseas bank accounts, and other crimes, announced by then Intelligence Chief (ISAFP), Gen. Victor Corpuz, along with allegations made by Rosebud and Ador Mawanay. The accusations remain unproven to this day. In Mawanay’s case, he subsequently flipflopped and claimed he had been forced to testify against Lacson.

What a vicious society we have – full of smears, poison pen letters, scurrilous "White Papers" which shred reputations, A.C./D.C. column-writers, and even reporters who quote persons they never talked to. I know another newspaper which ran a banner headline based on what then Presidential Chief of Staff Rigoberto "Bobbi" Tiglao was supposed to have said.

I was having coffee with Tiglao the very same morning the headline appeared and reproached him for having allowed the rival daily to scoop The STAR.

Bobby laughed and told me: "That headline isn’t true. I never spoke to any of their reporters on the subject. Haven’t been interviewed by them, in fact, for days."

"Why don’t you issue a denial then?" I challenged him.

He shrugged and smiled: "What’s the use?"

Too often, sad to say, the peddlers of lies and writers of falsehoods get away with it.

* * *

My partner, Simeon "Jun" Ventura, Jr., editor-in-chief of MABUHAY Magazine, and this writer arrived last Sunday on PAL’s efficient PR 730 flight, a roomy Airbus A-340-300. Bangkok, in this jet age, is just a whoop and a holler away.

I remember when I first came here as a young reporter (I stayed in the Bangkapi area, then the "red light" district, but ask not why. Okay, so it was cheaper. My friend, United Press International’s correspondent, the late Prasong Vatana, had found the place for me). Getting from Manila to Bangkok, in the first place, was a major journey.

As you know, aside from STARGATE, which publishes People Asia magazine, we have another corporation, Eastgate International which does MABUHAY magazine for Philippine Airlines. As Chairman of Eastgate, I’m proud to say that even in these economically depressed times, MABUHAY turned a profit this semester.

In any event, when we checked into our favorite hostelry, the Oriental Hotel on the Chao Phraya River, we were delighted to get a note from that famous hotel’s General Manager, my old friend Kurt Wachtveitl wishing Jun and myself "a pleasant stay by the River of Kings!" Even more pleasing news was the announcement by the Reception Desk that he had upgraded both of us to Suites. By golly, whenever a Saluyot gets such a deal it’s, as the Bible says, "manna from heaven."

I’ve known Wachtveitl since 1968, if I remember right, when guys like me were covering the Vietnam War. Foreign correspondents, flying in from "battlefield" Vietnam for R & R, used to land at Royal Thai Air Force Bases on US MAC-V aircraft, whether at Sattahip or Korat, or Udon, then hitch rides into swinging Bangkok. The Oriental, then much smaller, confined to the Authors’ Wing, offered us journalists a more than 50 percent discount. Kurt got promoted to General Manager and has been GM there, I believe, for the past 20 years or more. He has become such a Bangkok institution, a friend of Kings, princes, princesses, royal aristocrats, prime ministers, Cabinet biggies, and high-society priestesses, that like the world-renowned Hotel he operates he is irreplaceable!

In any event, Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, Joseph Conrad, and other literary greats once frequented this place which was founded in 1865 and is still, despite challenges from other great hotel chains, King of the River of Kings. Guess this plug will get Jun Ventura and myself the special "Bangkok Supplement" we’re negotiating.

* * *

The reason we got an early flight was to catch up with what the Lonely Planet guide calls "the Disneyland of Thai markets," the Weekend Market called Chatuchak.

From Saturday dawn to midnight Sunday, some 200,000 visitors and shoppers congregate from abroad and other parts of Thailand to patronize 8,600 stalls hawking everything from live snakes, poultry, opium pipes, to herbal medicines, knock-offs, watches, stamps, every item of clothing, T-shirts cheekily saying "Fuckin’ Gonads," "Good Bush, Bad Bush" (obscene, I’ll tell you), to a stand named "Cowboy" which sells everything from cowboy belts, boots, ten-gallon hats, pictures, buckles, holsters, to cowboy CDs and DVDs, plus antiques, furniture, army surplus goods, and a permanent Plant Market.

We love Chatuchak, indeed and have gone there on pilgrimage a dozen times. The teeming market is easily reached. It’s just off Phahonyothin Road and is the last stop on the Sky Train, their MRT which soars, air-conditioned, above the rooftops and expressways of Bangkok.

But this trip proved a disappointment. Chatuchak has become smelly, even dingier than ever. The food being cooked in the street stalls stinks of vetsin, or M.S.G. imparting headaches to the sensitive. Worst of all, spoiled by profit, the vendors and stallkeepers themselves, once so disarming, have turned snooty, insulting in manner, obstinate and surly. Chatuchak has lost its charm as far as I’m concerned.

* * *

Thailand’s tourism, however, puts ours in the pale… by a long shot. If the Philippines gets 1.2 million, we’re in celebration. Thailand’s Tourism Authority (TAT) predicts an influx of 13.38 million tourists this year, even post-Tsunami. That’s almost twice the number of tourists of more than a decade ago.

Most of the arrivals come thanks to MICE – which means not your favorite Disneyland rodent, but "Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibition" events every year. Sixty percent of the tourists, in fact, come from Asia. Europe accounts for 24 percent, the Americas (including the US) contribute just 6 percent.

There’s even a new airport, Suvarnahumbi International Airport due to open before the end of the year, too – capable of handling 76 flights per hour and 45 million passengers per year! Gee – and we still haven’t been able to open our Airport Terminal 3 – not for five months more! Are we being left behind? That’s for sure. And you know the reason why.