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Monday, January 03, 2005
Palace keeps silent on tsunami benefits to RP tourism
* It's neither timely nor right at the moment to talk about such things, says presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye
MALACAÑANG dismissed Sunday talks that the Philippines, particularly the tourism industry, could benefit from the recent calamity as some of the places affected by the tsunami were beach resorts and areas frequented by tourists in Asia.
Press Secretary and presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said it is neither timely nor right at the moment to talk about such things.
He added that with or without a catastrophe, the Philippines has been working on the improvement of the country's tourism industry which provides additional income to the country and even additional jobs for the Filipinos.
"We will uplift the country's tourism in our own way, it is not right to use the calamity where hundreds of thousand people died for our gain. We expressed sympathy to the victims of the tsunami," he said.
Bunye said the Philippine government is still determined to send a humanitarian team comprised of doctors, nurses, engineers and forensic experts to the tsunami-affected countries.
"That will be our modest contribution to this relief effort," he said.
A 12-person Philippine team was initially set to leave for Sri Lanka Sunday but was postponed on the request of the Sri Lankan ambassador to give them more time to prepare for the arrival of international missions.
Malacañang, meanwhile, is open to the proposals creating a $1 billion global disaster relief fund that would be used for relief, rescue and reconstruction efforts in calamity-stricken areas in the countries within the Asia Pacific Region and East Africa.
Bunye said the proposal of Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr. is a noble and welcomed one, but the proposal must be further studied and the details worked out.
De Venecia made the proposal following the tsunamis that have killed nearly 150,000 people in several Asian countries recently.
He said would file a House resolution proposing the creation of the standby fund that would benefit nations in the Pacific Rim, Southeast Asia, south Asia and even East Africa. Once approved, the resolution would be transmitted to the United Nations General Assembly for endorsement.
De Venecia said the standby fund would provide initial resources for the rebuilding of shattered communities to avert the spreading of contagious and deadly diseases spreading in devastated areas or used for the building of an advanced global monitoring system for tsunamis and other natural disturbances to save countless lives.
He added that the United Nations, the World Bank or the Asian Development Fund could administer the fund. (JMR)
(January 3, 2005 issue)
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