12 August 2020
Senator Vicente C. Sotto III
Senater President
6th Flr., Senate of the Philippines,
Roxas Blvd. Pasay City
Email: osec@senate.gov.ph
Dear Senator Sotto III,
Greetings from TIBFI, a tripartite body composed of representatives from the government, private and labor sectors which aims to provide manpower development for the tourism and hospitality industry.
In behalf of the Board of Trustees and our Board of Advisers, we stand firmly behind the August 6 letter of appeal submitted by Department of Tourism Secretary. Bernadette Romulo-Puyat addressed to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano regarding the proposed reallocation of P10 Billion funds towards tourism infrastructure projects.
Secretary Romulo-Puyat stated that they conducted many consultations with industry stakeholders re: recovery programs due to major upheavals in the operation of many tourism enterprises. The immediate need for credit facilities was specially highlighted, reason being that there have been little to no income generating activities since the beginning of this pandemic affecting 5 million tourism workers and 500,000 tourism enterprises, mostly from the MSMEs.
Thus, the P10 billion can be put to better use by providing tourism industry stakeholders with access to working capital loans and other credit facilities instead of infrastructure. We believe that the survival of the tourism industry should be given utmost consideration by our government, having been a major contributor to our GDP pre-Covid 19.
We therefore earnestly reiterate our industry's appeal that the P10 Billion be given to DOT, as the government agency who truly knows what the tourism industry needs, as a dedicated fund primarily for credit, rather than for tourism infrastructure at this most crucial of times.
We are positive that the support you will provide tourism will create returns in contributing to the economic growth of the country due to its multiplier effect and multi-industry impact.
We hope you will listen and consider this appeal in the deliberations you will have regarding the Bayanihan 2.
We remain hopeful you will find merit in this appeal, thank you.
Sincerely,
Ma. Christina G. Aquino,
Chairperson
Email: mcg_aquino@yahoo.com
Asian Institute of the Tourism
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
Cc:
- Sonny Angara: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com
- Frank Drilon: os_frankdrilon@yahoo.com
- Grace Poe: gracepoe2013@gmail.com
- Ralph Recto: ralphgrecto@gmail.com
- Migz Zubiri: senmigzzubiri@gmail.com
- Imee Marcos: senimeemarcos@gmail.com
- Bong Go: senbgconcerns@gmail.com
- Cynthia Villar: sencynthiavillar@gmail.com
At your service,
MA. CHRISTINA G. AQUINO
mcg_aquino@yahoo.com , machristinagaquino@gmail.com
TIBFI, Chair, http://www.tourismindustryboard.org/
HRAP, Associate Board member, http://www.hrap.org.ph/
THE-ICE, Secretary/Board Member, http://www.the-ice.org/
The document in pdf format can be dowloaded from here.