Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo recently found herself at the receiving end of a broadside from critics apparently unhappy with her success in pushing the closure and rehabilitation of Boracay Island and the continued increase in tourist arrivals in the Philippines.
This time, critics cited alleged findings from the Commission on Audit (COA) on the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) highly successful advertising program, which allowed the agency to achieve its target of more than 6.5 million tourists in 2017.
News reports claimed the COA took exception to the lack of documents provided for payments made by government television network PTV 4 to Bitag Media Unlimited, Inc. for DOT ads placed in the Kilos Pronto TV program hosted by hard-hitting journalists Erwin Tulfo and Alex Santos. The news reports made it appear that the DOT placed the ads with the program whose producer and main hosts are brothers of the tourism secretary.
Nothing is further from the truth, it turned out, as the DOT made it clear that it made the ad placements with PTV 4, and not with any private company. Teo noted that while the DOT ads were placed by the PTV 4 management with Kilos Pronto, she had no role in such a decision and assumed it was based on the network’s assessment of which TV programs had the most viewership or audience share. If there is one TV journalist that regularly gets the big audience, it is Erwin Tulfo whose huge ratings arise from his hard-hitting style of exposing anomalies and corruption in the government and the private sector. The PTV 4 management also issued a statement clarifying that it has submitted all the documents requested by COA to justify the disbursement of the DOT advertising funds.
The DOT has been putting out advertisements in domestic and international media outlets, but the deal with PTV 4 was something special because of President Duterte’s directive for government agencies and departments to support the TV network for its key role in the national government’s communications program.
Records from the DOT showed that even former Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez signed a P9-million contract in 2014 with the then newly launched online news site Rappler for “tourism intelligence” in Bali, Indonesia. What kind of tourism intelligence the DOT and the Philippine government received from Rappler for its P9-million contract was unclear, although it is well-known that Rappler boss Maria Ressa was once based in Jakarta.
Teo has been subjected to attacks by those affected by her no-nonsense approach to managing the DOT since she took over its helm on June 30, 2016, especially with her decision recently to fully support the closure to tourist traffic and rehabilitation of Boracay Island. The findings that almost 700 establishments in the island violated various laws only proved that Teo and Duterte were right in deciding to order the closure of Boracay for six months.
When she took office, Teo had to deal with several problematic projects left behind by her predecessor and veteran ad executive Mon Jimenez. Among these was the controversial ad production contract with an international ad agency that Jimenez entered into when he was about to leave the DOT, which Teo and her team had to manage effectively because it involved the Philippines’s own international tourism marketing campaign.
Teo also had to deal with issues on the non-liquidation of P240 million in funds given by Jimenez to the organizers of the problematic Madrid Fusión Manila food event, as Jimenez apparently did not sign the service contracts needed to carry out the project.
When it was her turn to scrutinize the project, Teo found out she only needed to give half of the budget demanded by the event organizers chosen by Jimenez. Her decision to make sure this year’s Madrid Fusión event is bid out properly earned her criticisms from allies of the company that managed the first two years of Madrid Fusión Manila that secured the contract at Jimenez’s behest.
To ensure that there would be no questions from the COA on the failure of Jimenez and his team to account for the P240 million he gave for the holding of the 2014 and 2015 Madrid Fusión Manila events, the DOT Central Office had to recall from abroad an official during Jimenez’s time to help settle the paper work and explain the transactions.
PHL-Sweden relations
Philippines-Sweden trade relations received a big boost recently when the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and the Embassy of Sweden in the Philippines formally launched the Philippines-Sweden Business Council (PSBC) on April 13.
Among those who attended the launching were Swedish Ambassador to the Philippines Harald Fries and PCCI Leaders Francis Chua, George Barcelon and Alegria Limjoco; Ambassador Delia Albert, former foreign secretary; PSBC’s Founding Chairman Atty. Leo G. Dominguez; and Georg Platzer of Ikea Philippines and Carl-Erik Leek of Saab, two major Swedish companies that recently established operations in the Philippines.
Fries welcomed the inauguration of the PSBC as he said this would contribute to the promotion of trade and investment between the two countries since the reopening of the Embassy of Sweden in Manila in November 2016.
The key objectives of the PSBC are to enhance the economic and trade relations between Sweden and the Philippines; to serve as a channel of business and networking opportunities for Filipino and Swedish businesses; and to strengthen the linkages of PCCI in Sweden and vice versa.
The formation of the PSBC builds on the memorandum of understanding signed by the PCCI and the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in November 2000, in which both chambers agreed to strengthen bilateral economic ties between the Philippines and Sweden.
The PSBC intends to bring Swedish business delegations to key cities in the Philippines to network with local business people, while also organizing Philippine business missions to Sweden in coordination with the Department of Trade and Industry, the Embassy of Sweden and Business Sweden, an organization jointly owned by the Government of Sweden and the Swedish business sector.
All PSBC members can tap the Embassy of Sweden, Business Sweden and the Philippine Trade Attaché in Sweden for assistance to promote trade and business between the
Philippines and Sweden.
E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.