COTANGENT - Articles by Daphne Cardillo |
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COTANGENT
By Daphne Cardillo
Local
Tourism
Heritage is gradually being integrated into the mainstream with the
yearly celebration of the Filipino Heritage Festival, and the heritage
conservation projects undergoing in the different parts of the country.
With this development, it will promote local tourism and an
increasing awareness of our people on the land they live.
A redirection of this sort might minimize promoting tourism as a
dollar earner industry.
The
government’s thrust to earn more dollars is still in answer to the drain
of foreign exchange, a post-war scenario that has not been resolved up
to this day, more than fifty years have passed.
But this balance of payment deficit can never be solved with the
liberalization policies the government has been pursuing since then;
from the Bell Trade Act of 1946 to the lifting of export and foreign
exchange controls in 1962, to the import-substitution and
export-orientation industrialization promoted for over four decades up
to this latest globalization design.
The peso is now tragically devalued.
Earning dollars through selling is our worst social malaise.
We’ve already sold human labor through our overseas workers
abroad, and now we’re selling our natural environment and local services
to foreign tourists in our homeland.
All in exchange for dollars!
When will we ever start respecting ourselves?
We’re always selling the best of our crops to foreigners—from
shrimps to bananas to handicrafts, while these same foreigners are
dumping their “oks na oks” and other salvage items on our faces.
Trade is good, but the
I
don’t know but any person I know who starts selling his valuables is in
the brink of debt or financial collapse.
But any self-respecting individual would try to keep even old
belongings as things of value, as they are an expression and extension
of his personality. Well
there are those who are practical and would sell or give away unused
items but that is a different story.
With the promotion of local tourism, there will be a shift in our goals
and perspectives. We would
start appreciating our own; the richness of our culture, the splendor of
our surroundings, and the warmth of our people.
These elements which are truly Filipino will be preserved.
The promotion of local tourism can become a unifying factor for a
diversified and segregated people like ours.
Once we keep moving around the country not only for business but
for leisure, we will eventually identify with each other on the national
level and minimize cringing to our ethno-linguistic groups.
We cannot be unified if our sense of identity is embedded on the
security of being an Ilocano, a Waray, an Ilonggo, a Kapampangan, or a
Tausog, among others.
Catering to local tourists is also less expensive and will make our
tourist facilities more affordable to locals.
The influx of foreign tourists raised the prices of goods and
services in these facilities to international market standards.
In this city alone, one beach resort sells a bottle of cola drink
at more than twice the price found in the sari-sari store.
The cost of recreational facilities is also exorbitant, forcing
the ordinary consumers to pay the foreign tourist’s price, thus
depriving them of continued use.
If
access to travel within the country be made easy and affordable,
Filipinos will realize that the best to see is still our own, and the
place to stay is still our land.
We’ve got the food, the relaxed atmosphere, the sand, sea and
sun, the diverse culture and terrain, fiestas and festivals, and the
comfort of our people’s trust.
By this time perhaps, we can reconsider selling ourselves and
start preserving our own.
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