Eleven congressmen, five component City Mayors, 44 Municipal Mayors, as well as the tri-city mayors of the City of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu, including the PCL Federation President have thrown their full and unwavering support to Department of Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco amid criticisms on the “Love The Philippines” tourism campaign.
In a manifesto of support issued on Monday, July 3, the local officials — all serving the united One Cebu Island, described this as a “coordinated demolition job” directed at the DOT leadership.
“Given the circumstances, it is not difficult to see that the goal of all this is to
sabotage the great accomplishments of the DOT Secretary, who continues to deliver to the administration of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr.
On July 27, the DOT launched its enhanced “Love The Philippines” campaign through an audio-visual presentation (AVP) but it subsequently came under fire when it was pointed out in social media posts that it was using stock footages from different countries.
“We, the Congressmen, City Mayors, Municipal Mayors, and Councilors under the banner of a united and indivisible One Cebu Island, declare our full and unwavering support to the Department of Tourism (DOT) led by our very own, a Cebuana, Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco,” the manifesto read.
“We, as a united One Cebu Island, express our extreme displeasure and strongly condemn the patent mudslinging and dirty politicking directed at Secretary Garcia-Frasco. We, as a Cebuano people, will not tolerate any black propaganda aimed solely at sullying the reputation of Secretary Garcia-Frasco,” it added.
Part of the demolition job, according to the officials, is to mislead the public into believing that the DOT already spent a hefty sum of about P50 million for it.
Frasco, in a separate statement wherein she announced the termination of the contract with the DDB Philippines, said not a single centavo was paid to the advertising firm.
The officials said the smear campaign came amid the fact that Frasco is the second top performing Cabinet official with an approval rating of 77 percent, and amid her recent accomplishment of being elected as Vice President of the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) General Assembly and Chair of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific.
“We maintain that this barrage of criticisms in social and mainstream media is aimed at destroying neither the DOT nor the concerned private advertisement agency, but Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco herself,” the statement read.
“We strongly believe this demolition job to be perpetrated by individuals with their own questionable agenda, perhaps to sway the trust and confidence of President Marcos in a Cebuana - who represents the very island that delivered the highest number of votes to the President and the Vice President in the 2022 Presidential Elections,” it added. ##