LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET ? Should toilets that Filipinos often refer to as ?comfort rooms? or ?rest rooms? be called as it is?

Members of the province?s tourism council believe so if only to make them more tourist friendly.

They said the move could benefit the Cordillera Administrative Region where foreigners have to endure long hours of travel along mountainous terrain.

Josephine Gacad, Benguet tourism council chair, said more often than not, foreigners found it difficult to relieve themselves along the highway since they could hardly see a signage that says ?toilet.?

Surprised

Most of these visitors were surprised to find out that those ?rest rooms? or ?comfort rooms (CR)? were actually toilets, Gacad said in a recent meeting of the council here.

The terms rest room and comfort room have often confused foreigners who are used to seeing signage with the word ?toilet? in other countries, said Gerry Lab-oyan, Cooperative Bank of Benguet general manager.

He said the terms ?comfort room? or ?rest room? evolved to make toilets ?smell good? and give them a more acceptable name.

Plain toilets

Lab-oyan said that in his foreign travels, the word ?toilet? was used to properly guide people to these facilities.

?Toilets are used and not comfort or rest rooms? There?s nothing wrong if those comfort rooms would be renamed plain toilets,? he said.

But Purificacion Molintas, tourism director in the Cordillera, said there were countries that used the terms familiar to Filipinos.

?These are accepted internationally,? she said.

The Webster?s dictionary defines toilet as a ?plumbing fixture for receiving human urine and feces?? or the ?room containing this fixture.?

A rest room, on the other hand, is a ?room equipped with toilets, washbasins etc. for the use of employees, clients [and other people] in a department store or other building.?

The tourism council has called on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Tourism (DoT) to sit down and discuss the possibility of renaming the public rest rooms along Halsema Highway as toilets.

Or perhaps, place another signage that would say ?toilet,? said Clarita Prudencio, provincial tourism officer.

The highway serves as the region?s main route from Baguio City to the tourist sites of Mountain Province, Benguet, Ifugao and Kalinga.

From April to June this year alone, the region had 305,358 local travelers and 23,519 foreign tourists. Of these visitors, 66,845 Filipino tourists and 429 foreigners went to Benguet, DoT records showed.

Managed by local government

Prudencio said the DPWH was tasked with building public rest rooms along Halsema highway.

The local governments managed the rest rooms, or toilets, following an agreement with the DoT and the DPWH.

Prudencio said these facilities were found in Barangay Sinipsip in Buguias town; Sayangan, Caliking and Cattubo in Atok town; and Acop and Ambassador in Tublay town.

Each facility costs an average of P400,000, she said.

Molintas said the DoT in the region had been very particular about the cleanliness of the rest rooms along Halsema Highway.

She said the standard facility must have a room each for male, female and the disabled; it must have plenty of water; the toilet must be dry; and there must be a mirror, lavatory and supply of toilet paper.

Molintas said public toilets or rest rooms in the region used to be classified into categories, from one to five stars, but the system is no longer used.

World Toilet Day

On a visit to Mumbai, India, a Singapore businessman was promoting World Toilet Day on Nov. 19.

Jack Sim, the founder and president of the World Toilet Organization (WTO), has made it his mission to improve sanitation across the globe.

?If you don?t have good toilets to welcome tourists, they don?t come and won?t go to all your beautiful sites,? Sim said.

Sim, who sees links between public toilets and social development, wants the issue pushed up the political agenda, urging people to ?talk more about toilets.?

?People go to the toilet more often than they have sex,? he said.

Nice experience

?It needs to be a very nice experience. It needs to be safe, it needs to be hygienic, it must not cause problems to your health and we need to feel emotionally engaged with the toilet,? he added.

In Haryana state, north India, a successful ?No Toilet, No Wife? campaign has been running, urging women to turn down suitors if they cannot provide them a house with a lavatory. With a report from Agence France-Presse