Tourism chief: Much work ahead after hostage crisis

After Monday’s deadly hostage crisis in Manila, the country’s tourism chief said on Tuesday that there is much work to be done to rebuild the Philippines’ image abroad. Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said the hostage crisis was the latest in a recent series of tourism-related problems that include the labor row at flag carrier Philippine Airlines. “Definitely apektado tayo dahil sa nakita ng buong mundo ... Kakayod tayo, kakayod at sisikap tayo na mag-recover (Definitely, what happened Monday will affect our image abroad. We will have to work really hard just to recover from this)," Lim said in an interview on dzBB radio. At least 10 people were killed in Monday’s incident, including the hostage-taker, former Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, was fired from his post as chief of the Manila Police's Mobile Patrol Unit in 2008 after he was charged with robbery and extortion. He was allegedly involved in the so-called hulidap practice of some policemen of planting evidence and seeking a pay-off from the victims. Lim said around 120,000 tourists from Hong Kong visit the Philippines every year. He said Hong Kong’s travel industry council cited Monday’s incident as a first of sorts. “Kailangan linawin natin hindi ito pangkaraniwang event, sabihin natin isolated ito. Dapat ma-improve, pagalingan natin ang pag-handle sa situation na ito (We have to make clear that this is an isolated event and not a common occurrence. But we must also approve the way we handle the situation)," he said. On the other hand, Lim said the hostage crisis was not the only woe he now faces. He said the labor row at PAL had also been a problem for his department. “Problema pa rin ng PAL, tama, patong-patong (You are right, the hostage crisis plus the PAL problem mean our problems are piling up)," he said. However, he is optimistic that the government can eventually recover from these problems. “Kaya natin ito, kaya natin (We can do this, we can)," he said. –VVP, GMANews.TV