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Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Editorial: Protecting visitors
WhenEVER jitters about Cebu or the country losing foreign tourists and visitors after incidents involving them land in the news, Sun.Star has always cautioned against worry or fear about losing visitors who are undesirable.
If some tourists and investors from abroad violate our laws or corrupt our people, those visitors must not be the kind we wish to keep. On the contrary, those are the visitors we want and need to drive away.
We do appreciate the business foreign visitors bring and the money they place in our industries but not with the add-on price that disturbs our peace or otherwise subverts our law and culture.
A few foreign visitors are pedophiles who prey on our children or lecherous fiends who prostitute our women. Some victimize or exploit our workers, illegally recruit them for sex slavery or otherwise conduct trade using unlawful methods learned in their advanced countries. Others bring thugs or hire locals to pursue vices of gambling and drugs or wage acts of extortion and kidnapping honed with the skill perfected in their homeland.
Surely, that breed of tourists and investors we do not want or need.
We can lose the undesirables and yet keep the greater number of visitors who are peaceful and law-abiding and genuinely want to enjoy our country’s hospitality.
Most foreign tourists and investors don’t want to break the peace and only wish that their stay be unmarred by any breach of law and order. These are the visitors who expect and deserve to be protected from criminality, whatever the source, whoever the perpetrator. They want the law enforced even against their compatriots provided they, like other suspects, are given due process.
Worry or fear over loss of business from abroad is legitimate.
Wanting to keep foreign business at whatever cost to community and country is not. It is harmful and dangerous.
Harassing Veco
It is apparent that Visayan Electric Co. (Veco), the company that serves 225,000 households and 22,000 business clients in Cebu, is being harassed.
One politician has made no secret about his dislike of Veco and seems bent on making its life miserable by not extending its franchise.
If Veco has violated laws or regulations, then the alleged violations must be raised before the proper agency or court. As a public utility, it is accountable for its acts or omissions.
The same politician, in public forums and advertisements, even urged the public to come out and present complaints against the power company. Has any such complaint been made, supported with evidence, and presented for Veco to answer?
Not to the knowledge of the public.
Veco deserves to be informed of the charges and have its side heard. It’s called due process and it’s still in our law books as anyone can check.
The public that pays Veco also needs to know why the power company is being hounded. Is there anything regarding Veco service they aren’t being told about?
Selective enforcement is bad for the business community—especially if that turns out to have no basis, in which case it becomes oppressive and unjust.
(December 10, 2003 issue)
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