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Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Transfer of DOT tops Arroyo’s plans
CEBU CITY -- The transfer of the Department of Tourism (DOT) main office to Cebu is a priority of President Arroyo if she gets a full six-year year term.
Cebu is a logical choice because of its location and accessibility, Arroyo told an informal gathering of political leaders Monday night.
The President has been in Cebu since Sunday “for rest and prayer.” But she told the local officials that she wanted to join the people of Cebu in protesting allegations that there was cheating in the elections here.
“Deep in our hearts we know that Cebuanos fight fair and square. The votes in the region were cast and counted fairly and honestly,” Arroyo told reporters at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.
The opposition led by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen had alleged that some election returns from Cebu were tampered to add votes for Arroyo.
According to unofficial results, Arroyo got over a million votes in Cebu Province and the rest of the Central Visayas.
Congress just started Monday to canvass the votes for the presidential and vice presidential race, but Arroyo is already making plans in case she is proclaimed as the winner.
Aside from moving the central tourism office in Cebu within the year, the President also announced plans of setting up a one-stop shop for overseas Filipino workers, so they don’t have to go to Manila to process their papers.
Tourism remained a major topic, though, with Gov. Pablo Garcia, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Mandaue City Thadeo Ouano, Lapu-Lapu City Arturo Radaza, Danao City Ramon Durano III, Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama and Toledo City Vice Mayor Aurelio Espinosa.
Capitol officials and the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) are asking President Arroyo to pursue a plan to rehabilitate the former Argao Beach Club.
Around 10 last night, Arroyo called up Tourism Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan to check on the status of the beach club.
In a resolution approved Monday, the board said the re-opening of what it described as a “premier tourist destination in the 1970s and 1980s” will benefit not only Argao and Dalaguete towns, which the property straddles, but also the neighboring areas.
The PB noted that the “elaborate plan” to rehabilitate the tourist facility in southeastern Cebu, with its white sand beach, was earlier announced by Senator-elect Richard Gordon, then tourism secretary, with great fanfare to the local media.
Gordon even led the initial clearing of the resort together with members of the private sector and residents.
It generated much hope since the resort not only provided work for residents but also a “ready market for the products of cottage industries there.”
“Until it was sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the Argao Beach Club was a beehive of activity, overflowing with tourists and a quite profitable economic undertaking, lending prestige, honor and pride to the towns of Argao and Dalaguete,” the PB said in the resolution.
The measure was sponsored by Member Antonio Almirante Jr., a resident of Argao.
However, the economic development committee of the Regional Development Council last week sought clarification about a memorandum from the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) announcing the “immediate discontinuance” of the development of the Argao Beach Club without citing any reason.
The memo issued by PTA General Manager Robert Dean Barbers, the son of reelectionist Sen. Robert Barbers, was dated May 13, three days after the national and local elections.
The EDC was merely told that it was a “top level decision.”
A brief on the undertaking said it would have covered the repair and rehabilitation of cottages at the resort for tourists in the southern towns.
The tourism department would have been implemented the project with funding for P4.7 million from both the National Government and the local government units.
Last January, P1.2 million as funding was released by work there stopped immediately after the elections last May 10 because of the memorandum from Barbers.
As of the first quarter of 2004, it was already 34 percent complete. MEA/KMF of Sun.Star Cebu
(June 1, 2004 issue)
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