Why not repeal the Tourism Act of 2009?

The 2011 Aboitiz Invitational kicked off last Tuesday with a Pro-Am tournament, pitting us duffers with the professional golfers. It’s been a long time since I played a Pro-Am and the Aboitiz Invitational has truly encouraged young Filipino golfers in this leg of the Asian Development Tour. In my flight were my golf cronies Nonoy Tirol and Victor Yuvallos and our pro was Rufino Bayron, younger brother of last year’s Aboitiz Invitational 2010 defending champion Jay Bayron. Just in time the weather (it’s been muddy weeks before) cleared up and the Cebu Country Club is at its pristine best!

Champion of the Pro-Am is the team of Derrick Chua, Robert Tiu and Joe Soberano with their Pro Elmer Salvador. 1st runner up is the team of Boy Escaño, Bruce Chiongbian and Noel Ybañez with Pro Gene Bondoc. At this time, the top golfers are on their second day. Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) Chief Reputation Officer Sebastian “Basti” Lacson came up with a surprising text message… from a world famous golfer who greeted the players at the Cebu Country Club. It came from no less than Australian golfing great Greg “The Shark” Norman. Hmmm, what’s the connection here? 

Although Greg Norman has not yet been to Cebu, he is married to Kirsten Taylor, daughter of Margie Taylor, a cousin of Basti. He had an encouraging text message “I’m so happy to know that the Philippine Golf Tour and Asian Development Tour have gotten together to bring professional golf to a higher level. The growth of global golf has never looked stronger, so with this new tournament is a major step in the right direction for the development of the sport of golf in this region of the world. Kudos to the Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) for its continued support for golfing in the Philippines.

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Speaking of golf, last year when his name first appeared from the Search Committee under the new administration of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to head the Bureau of Customs, we were the first to bring out the questions on the credibility of Angelito Alvarez, who was disqualified for cheating at the Alabang’s Mango Tee. In the past week, despite news reports that he was on his way out, Commissioner Alvarez apparently wanted to stay in his Customs seat. But the clincher was The Philippine STAR’s headline story last Tuesday that quoted no less than P-Noy who clearly pointed out that he was not satisfied with the performance of Comm. Alvarez. All I can say is . . . we told you so from the start!

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It’s finally September, the first of the “Ber” months leading to the month of December, thus Christmas is getting close. This also means that Department of Tourism (DoT) Secretary Albert Lim is officially resigned from the Tourism Office. But last Monday, there was a last ditch effort by Bertie Lim to hold on to his seat in the DoT… I mean where did that group called National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) come from?

This group came up with a paid ad asking P-Noy to keep Bertie Lim in the Tourism Office, which only proves what we’ve been saying all along that Bertie Lim’s supporters were no longer coming from the Tourism stakeholders, but from his friends from the Makati Business Club of which he was executive secretary for many years. But like I said, Lim is already out… and we should welcome the new Tourism boss.

As I pointed out already, I wanted to move on to the other pressing issues in this country, but somehow, we are always lured back to talk about Tourism. More so that also last Monday, the lengthy letter of Mrs. Alejandra Clemente (sent to me the other week) was printed last Monday in the STAR. I have said it many times before; I have a rule to never publish letters emailed to me if it is longer than my column. Though I always respond to those who write me letters, I merely printed the meat of Mrs. Clemente’s letter. But somehow she was able to have her letter printed in full.

Again let me reiterate that Mrs. Clemente’s Federation of Tourism Industries of the Philippines (FTIP) has 10 associations of which six are already members of the Tourism Congress, including the PTAA, which her daughter also heads. With this, she should never claim to be left out in the Tourism Congress. But it is more than obvious to me that she wants to control the Tourism Congress… perhaps she should vie to be the next Tourism Secretary so she could really control the tourism sector.

Perhaps as my first suggestion to the new Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez, I would like to suggest to him and to P-Noy to repeal the Tourism Act of 2009 for it has not done our Tourism Industry any good as it only politicized and polarized this industry to the point it already caused the resignation of a Tourism Secretary. We should have a privately run Tourism association in the lines of the Hong Kong Tourist Association… then things will move for the better in our tourism sector.

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