While the Department of Tourism (DoT) has been pushing for the country to become the prime cruise travel destination in the region, its recent inaction on an allegation of a bribery attempt may burst the ambition.
A stopover that was supposed to be memorable for a world cruise turned horrible for a Filipino-Canadian and his wife because of the demand for grease money by an official of the Cebu Port Authority sometime last March.
According to the email of a passenger using the name “Gabby” that was furnished the DAILY TRIBUNE, he and his wife, along with 600 other passengers on the Azamara Onward cruise ship sailed from Koror, Palau to the Philippines last 18 March.
(Gabby declined to have his full name revealed for fear of repercussions, he said, because being a Filipino he knows how things work in this country. His full name and particulars are known to the Daily Tribune and will be furnished to investigating authorities.)
What they were looking forward to was the next destination which was Manila.
Unfortunately, the cruise ship had a problem refueling in Palau because the facility was out of service.
Short of fuel to reach Manila, the ship had to make an emergency stop in Cebu City.
Gabby narrated that they were all looking forward to getting off in Cebu after the captain announced a stopover that would take six hours.
He said the passengers would have plenty of time to disembark, tour Cebu, sample the local cuisine, and buy souvenirs. The ship’s captain allowed the crew, including many Filipinos, to disembark as well.
The Filipino crew announced the side trip to their relatives who traveled from other parts of the country to be with their kin whom they had not seen in a long time.
“Well, we arrived at the port and the local authorities came on board (customs, immigration, quarantine, etc.) and they gave us clearance to disembark. But then, the a — e showed up. This guy was the head of the Port Authority, and we could not disembark without his signature on a piece of paper. Unfortunately, he was asking for a different kind of paper (which were crisp bills),” Gabby narrated.
Blatant bribery
He identified the official as Manuel Luis Sanchez of the Cebu South Port Authority.
He said Sanchez insisted on meeting personally with the ship captain to whom he complained about how he was called away from a family dinner “because of the unplanned visit and that he wanted to do us a favor.”
Gabby said the port official asked the ship captain for payment of an “accommodation and processing fee.”
“The captain knew what the guy was up to and didn’t budge because paying bribes is not in the corporate handbook. And so this port authority guy made us all suffer and made us stay on board because neither him nor the captain would budge,” Gabby said.
“Cebu lost the tourist dollars that would have been spent there and instead it created a negative situation that will likely mean that no other cruise ships will visit the island,” Gabby said.
Weeks passed and Gabby wrote Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco on 3 April to report the incident.
“The bottom line was that the Filipino crew of the ship were reduced to tears because they failed to be with their loved ones at the port, even for a few hours. And the tourists like myself, of course, were not allowed to get off the ship and could not visit Cebu. I am writing you because Mr. Sanchez has caused irreparable damage to the reputation of the Philippines and the city of Cebu. As a Filipino, I was infuriated and embarrassed to face my fellow passengers,” he told the secretary in his letter.
Negative perception cultivated
“Word about what happened has already spread throughout the cruising industry and every passenger on board had a negative view of the country and the city of Cebu. All because of one greedy man,” Gabby wrote.
Gabby’s letter was, thus far, ignored by Frasco.
The Department of Tourism has a program to make the Philippines Asia’s top cruise destination.
The Philippines was even hailed by the London-based World Cruise Awards, the sister award-giving body of World Travel Awards, as 2023’s Asia’s Best Cruise Destination — the country’s first time to win the award.
Frasco, a former mayor of Liloan, Cebu, had touted building up the country’s reputation as an emerging powerhouse in the global cruise and tourism sector.