FLIPSIDE
Atty. Dodo Dulay

Tourism is all about disco-very. There’s no bigger crowd drawer than new stuff waiting to be unveiled, or old stuff reengineered for better pageantry. But in tourism, as in literary pursuits,

clichés don’t find a ready audience. We can’t go back to selling the idea of old Manila landmarks or the Rice Terraces when they’re nearly falling apart due to neglect and abuse.

So whoever came up with this year’s tourism one-liner “It’s more fun in the Philippines” got the whole notion of tourism out of kilter. Fun is as relative a term as one’s next of kin. Those who find white sands and sunburnt bikini marks a good reason to splurge may not unfurl a single peso at the National Museum or Fort Santiago. And even if culturally, the Philippines is as rich as Paris or Madrid, the Manila of Rizal’s era has been replaced by shopping malls and high-rise condominiums.

The once famous Nayong Pilipino—a theme park created to give the tourist a highlight of the country’s best tourist attractions—has since been closed to give way to the expansion of Manila’s international airport. The Mehan Garden, a botanical garden built in 1858 by the Spaniards, is now home to a multi-storey car park and a school.

One of the largest and finest Art Deco structures in Asia—the Jai Alai building along Taft Avenue—was demolished by the Manila City government in 2000 but the lot on which it stood remains vacant until today.

Prewar landmarks such as the Art Deco Laperal Apartments on C.M. Recto Street were bulldozed early this year. This despite Republic Act 10066—the National Cultural heritage Act of 2009—protecting all 50-year old buildings by requiring any renovation or demolition to have a special permit from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

At the rate we’re losing our heritage sites, the only authentic Manila that tourists (or our children) might ever get to see will be a two-hour drive outside of Manila.

While many European cities spend hundreds of millions of dollars preserving their heritage buildings, sometimes even to the extent of incorporating entire vintage structures in a modern and state-of-the art commercial complex, we have done the exact opposite, all in the name of development.

For those of us who spend a king’s ransom traveling abroad to experience the sights and sounds of places only previously seen in glossy magazines and posters, it’s not the shops and malls that take our breath away. It’s their indescribable and unique “cultural flavor” that arouses our awe, curiosity—and oftentimes—envy.

The famed city of Paris, for instance, has its own distinct ambience compared to Catalonian towns near the southern Pyreenes mountain range. Even major Spanish cities such as Barcelona have a different vibe from other urban centers like Madrid that one feels transported to another country altogether.

That kind of distinctiveness and peculiarity (or what others would call “character”) seems to have disappeared in many of our country’s cities and towns, along with our heritage sites.

All our major cities now look very much alike. Blighted by big shopping malls and horrendous traffic. Apparently, ours is a kind of progress based on 21st century conveniences and amenities.

We returned to San Jose, Antique, several months ago expecting it to look much like the one of our youth. Instead, what we saw was a city crammed with concrete houses, mini-malls and a large shopping center. Gone were the quaint eateries and roadside stalls dotting the town square.

In Iloilo City, a café latte, Bavarian donut or French fries is oftentimes a few steps away. But for a taste of an authentic La Paz Batchoy or pancit molo, one would still have to ride a jeepney or tricycle.

An enduring tourist attraction takes much of what we are as a people and highlights these through its own unique art form. Take, for example, Vigan in Ilocandia. The old Spanish style houses have been the prime tourist destination for decades, and it has yet to lose its allure.

Taal in Batangas is another destination that has retained much of its culture along with the trappings of progress, especially with the renovation of the centuries-old Cathedral.

Our country cannot bank solely on our beaches, nightspots or shopping centers as prime tourist magnets. We’re sure many foreign visitors have “been there and done that”—in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere.

If we are to distinguish ourselves from our Asian neighbors as an extraordinary and novel tourist destination, the Aquino administration must invest in preserving, rehabilitating and promoting our cities’ historical landmarks—and not coincidentally, the story of a country and its people.