HK travel advisory also hurt HK tourism

A week after the blotched hostage crisis, the people of Hong Kong held a huge rally in downtown Hong Kong to denounce the humiliating way we solved that incident. This proves that tempers are still frayed in the former Crown Colony. That our local hotels have already reported cancellations from Hong Kong is understandable because it is a direct result of the travel advisory that the Hong Kong government issued against us.

However, few people realize that this travel advisory also hurt the Hong Kong tourist economy. During the height of the SARS crisis that plagued Hong Kong some years back, I learned that the Philippines was number four in the list of arrivals to Hong Kong. The number one tourist arrivals to Hong Kong are the British, followed by the Australians, then the Americans and followed by the Filipinos. In short, in Asia we are the number one visitor to Hong Kong. So when tempers starts to cool down, I’m sure that the Hong Kong government would soon lift that travel ban to the Philippines because it also hurt the Hong Kong tourist economy when Pinoys don’t visit.

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I got a very lengthy letter from Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon who reported to me that he is sponsoring an ordinance that would promote Barrier-Free Tourism (BFT) mechanisms in our hotels, restaurants or malls in support of the persons with disabilities (PWD). All this is actually embodied in the law dubbed BP-344 known as the “Accessibility Law” that requires buildings, institutions and establishments to install facilities and other devices for PWDs. My sister Adela A. Kono gave the Cebu City Council a power point presentation on BFT so people would be aware that we support those people whose only problem is accessibility.

How many people know that there is an estimated 8.3 million Filipinos with disabilities in the year 2004? I’m sure that at this time, this figure must have increased, given the numerous road accidents happening all over the country. Principal amongst them are accidents involving the Habal-habal motor taxis, considered to have the highest number of injuries and fatalities in public transportation. This is not to mention the numerous bus accidents that have happened this year alone.

In the end, just because you are healthy and able-bodied is no guarantee that you won’t find yourself joining the ranks of the PWDs. However, what I find more important in implementing the BFT is that, we now have a lot of senior citizens, who apparently have been harping on their senior citizens discounts more than easy access to facilities. BFT allows senior citizens, including nursing or pregnant mothers to use these facilities to make it easy for them to go around the establishments that uphold the Accessibility law. Unfortunately, many of its provisions are not enforced, just like many of the laws in this sick country are not enforced.

Thanks to concerned public servants like Councilor Alvin Dizon, BFT will soon become a reality. We are in the midst of a tourism crisis brought about by a bungling Keystone SWAT that slapped our nation right smack in our faces of how inept and inefficient we have become. All we needed there was a squad of well-trained and determined officers to swoop into the bus and end the crisis. But no, the PNP just sent too many cops who had no damn idea on how to solve the crisis situation.

Mind you, it is not just the police force that are inept; just look at the way our workers asphalt our roads, or fix our water mains; these type of work can be done by one or two people in a western country, but in this country, so many people are doing the work which can be done by a few.

So in the meantime that we are experiencing a lull in our tourism arrivals, I suggest we get ourselves busy in fixing our tourism facilities, making them cleaner, cleaning up garbage and putting in a Barrier-Free Tourism facilities so that the elderly who are already retired can come to our shores and enjoy our facilities and shopping malls with ease. Thanks to kind souls like Hon. Alvin Dizon, you are a sight for sore eyes.

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It’s been two weeks since my son JV was down with the dreaded Dengue fever and it seems that there is no letup in this epidemic. There must be something terribly wrong with the way the Department of Health (DoH) is addressing this problem. For sure, cleaning up our surroundings so that the Dengue mosquito cannot breed should be the first line of defense against Dengue. Meanwhile, there are tried and tested ways to heal the sick like using the juice of raw papaya leaves that can bring the platelet count soaring. I just got this report from the Internet. The DoH should look into this as a way of stopping the Dengue Fever virus. All they need to do is squeeze the juice; don’t add water, but drink it like a bitter medicine.