A LETTER TO HONORABLE ACE DURANO, DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM

I sent this letter via post to the office of the Honorable Ace Durano of the Department of Tourism not too long after my mother, my nephew and I went on a package tour to Banaue/Sagada last year. I never received a response from his office. Might have something to do with the fact that I am a private citizen with no political clout. Nonetheless, I wanted to share the letter with you.

July 16, 2006

Honorable Joseph H. Durano
Secretary, Department of Tourism
Room 400, DOT Building
T.M. Kalaw Street
Rizal Park, Ermita 1000

Dear Minister Durano:

I read a piece in the Philippine Daily Inquirer by Greg Bloom (one of the author’s of Lonely Planet Philippine edition) about the potential of the Philippines as a major ecotourism and adventure travel destination. This is obviously an area where the Philippines has a competitive advantage in that has not been fully explored.

Greg Bloom also mentioned in his piece that the Department of Tourism is aggressively promoting the already famous tourist attractions which include Boracay, Bohol, Palawan and Banaue/Sagada. I do agree with him that destinations like Banaue/Sagada are more heavily advertised than others, although it appears to me that we have to do more than just promotion – we need to focus on preservation, as well.

I acknowledge the fact that you have done a superb job during your current stint as Minister and congratulate you for your efforts. I know this because of the published statistics in the papers on foreign visitors and their more diverse nationalities, in addition to the visual evidence I see when I walk around in the Central Business District and my travels throughout the Philippines. There are more foreigners living and visiting the country today than when I arrived in 2003.

I have lived in the States for 17 years, the last 9 years in New York City. I returned home to Manila in August 2003. Since I am now a resident of Makati, it is my obligation as a concerned Filipino citizen to write my public officials if I feel they can do something to make this country a better place for myself and my countrymen. I am writing you to relate a story about my trip to Sagada in the end of May this year.

I took a walking tour with a local tour guide to a cave in Sagada to see the much talked about Hanging Coffins. I was deeply saddened to hear the story from the tour guide that the city is not given proper funding to preserve these sites. In fact, from where I was standing in the mouth of the cave, you could see bones left on top of the wooden coffins. Obviously, certain irresponsible and disrespectful visitors had already desecrated these burial sites. It is both embarrassing and pitiful that something like this can happen to one of our most beloved landmark treasures and more importantly, a sacred place of burial.

A top foreign female executive of a New Zealand bank in the Philippines said in an interview that Sagada is so magical that anyone who hasn’t been to Sagada has not been to the Philippines. This is a compliment of the highest order to the beauty and majesty of this place, Minister Durano.

If what the tour guide in Sagada told me is accurate, I urge you to please look into that problem. I believe that tourism, like it has in other Emerging countries, i.e. Thailand, can contribute significantly to our economy and bring our people out of poverty by giving them a source of income. Unfortunately, this will not happen if we allow the tourist attractions that make the Philippines a unique destination in Asia like Banaue/Sagada further deteriorate.

I thank you for your time and I hope you appreciate my concern. I would like to know what we can do collectively, the DOT and the public, to alleviate this situation. If there is anything I can do to help your institution, I may be reached by email at tvitas@pldtdsl.net.

Sincerely yours,

Tina Vitas