What was to be a grandiose plan by the Department of Tourism to promote and advertise the Philippines to the world and entice foreign tourists to come, visit, and be awed by the beautiful sights that our country has — comparable with — and can even surpass other countries in grandeur and magnificence, and for them to feel the renowned hospitality and warmth of the Filipinos, was marred by unfortunate glitz that taints the proponents, and necessarily the country as well, no matter how slightly.
The audio presentation showcasing the natural beautiful magnets that mesmerize the eyes and the mind turned out to be mere reproduction or look-alike of the original taken from the photo and video files of other countries, particularly from Storyblocks, a website’s royalty-free footage, audio, video templates, and special effects, e.g. rice terraces in Bali, Indonesia, a fisherman throwing a net in Thailand, a passenger plane in Zurich, Switzerland, jumping dolphins, and a person driving a vehicle on sand dunes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
It took an eagle-eyed blogger Sass Rogando Sasot to blow the lid off the DOT’s audio-visual ads. Then came rushing the slings and arrows from a multi-sectoral source that targeted the DoT and its Secretary Cristina Garcia-Frasco for what others exaggeratedly described as “monumental” and “gargantuan” faux pas.
Understandably, there were calls for blood and heads to roll, especially so that there has been an admission by the contracted agency DDB Philippines owning to the fault, which is a violation of the contract, making them liable for damages and entitlement for DoT to rescind the agreement, and therefore a legitimate concern and evoking justified outrage.
Others, meaning the usual suspects (politicians hungry for publicity ), however, finding a media platform to ride on, for their own projection for election purposes, severely criticized the DoT Secretary Cristina Frasco-Garcia calling for her resignation, a misplaced and faulty demand.
The response to the fiasco by the Tourism boss was swift and decisive. She forthwith terminated the contract with DDB, even as she slammed it for its destructive breach, and acknowledged its omission for not thoroughly and strictly auditing the AVP before its release to the public and posting it on its website.
The unfortunate incident, however, does not diminish the work done by Secretary Cristina and her department, undertaking innovative programs and projects geared towards the enhancement of the tourism industry to generate an influx of foreign visitors in the country and make it one of the magnetic tourists’ attractions in the world.
The “Love the Philippines” as a come-on slogan is delightfully catchy. It has a twin message. It exhorts foreigners to come to the Philippines not only because it’s fun and memorable coming here seeing the majestic and splendid natural beauties that abound in entire the archipelago, but for other reasons that they will likewise feel the caring and loving trait of the Filipinos that will prod them to keep coming back, for after their visit they can’t stop themselves not to love the Philippines.
The slogan is at the same time a shout-out to the world that we Filipinos love the Philippines not only because of our rich cultural heritage, the heroism of our heroes, and our country to free ourselves from the colonial masters but more of our humanity that has become our mark as a nation.
Love the Philippines!