Central Visayas tourism operators asked to check safety of their facilities

CEBU CITY – The Department of Tourism (DOT) in Central Visayas has called on tourism operators to check the safety standard of their facilities in the wake of an accident on Wednesday in Oslob town, Cebu where four tourists were hurt.

Shalimar Tamano, DOT-7 director, said his office would also look into what happened to determine if the resort should be held liable.

“We will be monitoring this closely,” he said.

According to a report forwarded by the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), four Chinese tourists were hurt when the baggage lift of a resort collapsed.

The four were identified as Pan Ze Xi, 72; Pan Xue Ding, 60; Pan Wan Hua, 40, and Ling Ni Dong, 32.

The four reportedly arrived around 8 a.m. at the Seafari Resort in Barangay Tanawan in Oslob, about 122 kilometers southwest of Cebu.

Baltazar Tribunalo, PDRRMO chief, said the victims reportedly asked the resort staff to let them ride on the wooden baggage lift in going down the cliff beside the main road.

The wooden lift was not able to carry the weight of the four tourists, causing it to collapse.

The victims fractured their legs and ribs and had lacerations in their feet. They were brought to the Oslob District Hospital but were later transferred to a private hospital in Mandaue City.

“I already submitted a report to our Manila office. First, the resort is not accredited by DOT and I don’t think they applied for accreditation. While this is an isolated case for now, any bad incident [whether] big or small will really make us look bad,” said Tamano.

“We need the help of stakeholders – the LGUs (local government units) and the owners because if we don’t arrest this tendency to be lax [over] the safety of our facilities, our visitors may just go to other places,” Tamano said.