Tourism exec on Teo remarks: Let’s look at the whole context

Tourism Assistant Secretary Ricky Alegre on Friday said that the remarks of department chief Wanda Teo to “tone down” reports on extrajudicial killings in the country was only a “candid” response, and urged the people to look more on the whole context of her statement.

“Tignan natin ‘yung buong konteksto nung statement ni Secretary Wanda Teo, ang tunay na pakay niya ay manawagan sa lahat, hindi lang doon sa naging video ni VP Leni at sa media; in fact, ang panawagan niya po ay sa lahat ng tourism ambassador para lalong gumanda at maengganyo ang mga turista na bumisita sa Pilipinas,” Alegre said in an interview with Radyo Inquirer.

(Let’s look at the whole context of Secretary Wanda Teo’s statement, her true aim was to call on everyone, not just VP Leni and the media; in fact, her appeal is for all tourism ambassadors to encourage tourists to visit the Philippines.)

Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo on Wednesday urged the media to “tone down” their coverage of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, saying it was making it hard to sell the Philippines as a tourist destination.

She addressed the same plea to Vice President Leni Robredo, who sent a video message last week to a UN gathering in Vienna denouncing the alleged summary execution of over 7,000 Filipinos in the antinarcotics campaign.

READ: Tourism chief urges media to tone down news on extrajudicial killings

“I think naging candid lang siya, so to speak, noong tinanong siya (I think she was just candid, so to speak, when she was asked). Natural, every negative report affects tourism directly,” Alegre said.

“Ang importante naman dito, we are aware of the criticisms at mga reports, pero hindi tumitigil ang DOT na magpromote na safe pumunta sa Pilipinas,” he added.

(What’s important here is that we are aware of the criticisms and the reports, but the DOT isn’t stopping its promoting of the Philippines and saying that it’s safe to come here.)

Echoing Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo’s call, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on Thursday asked the media not to “bloat too much” the data on summary killings, which give a bad image to the Duterte administration’s war against illegal drugs.

READ: ‘Bato’ urges media: Be fair in reporting drug war

“Let’s give it to the authorities to decide ano ba ‘yung accurate data, kasi marami na ring interpretation from many sectors na nagiging source ng debate (let the authorities decide what the accurate date is, because there are many interpretations from many sectors which become a source of debate), but as the people are debating about it, the Department of Tourism under Secretary Wanda Teo will continue its job to promote the Philippines,” Alegre said.

He said that despite the call, Teo values the department’s partnership with the media.

“She respects and wala siyang intention na baguhin ang mga patakaran ng media (she has no intentions of changing the media’s policy),” he said. JE

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