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By Rome Jorge, Lifestyle Editor
The best testament to a man comes not from any
award conferred before the public eye. It reveals itself in hushed
whispers without his presence.
An elevator attendant at the Department of
Tourism (DOT), speaking candidly with a visitor, tells proudly of
how his boss never avails of his service: “The Secretary never
rides the elevator. He always takes the stairs to his office on the
fourth floor. And he never has any bodyguards. No airs
whatsoever.” His boss, Joseph Felix Mari Hotchkiss Durano, better
known as “Ace,” is a young man and an outstanding one at that.
He has the award to prove it. And it is not one for stair climbing.
First five
On the conferment of the Ten Outstanding Young
Men (TOYM) award upon him, the 38-year-old DOT Secretary reveals,
“When I was told I was part of the final five, it was my coping
[with the possibility of rejection] that I said, ‘Performance
still means more to me than any recognition,’” humbly adding in
his trademark soft-spoken voice, “At the end of the day, I just
happened to be part of a sector that is being recognized which is
the tourism sector.”
The TOYM, an annual award given by the Junior
Chamber International, a worldwide federation of young leaders and
entrepreneurs which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, has
an uncompromising selection process that seeks to highlights
achievers the age 40 and below. So high is the standard that the
“ten outstanding young men” for 2008 are but five, one of whom
is a woman, journalist Karen Davila.
Unlike some of his fellow recipients, Durano won
the award upon his first year of nomination. Many notable achievers
have had to go endure TOYM’s gauntlet process only to be rejected
year after year. He notes, “They asked me more questions than at
my confirmation hearing at the Senate.”
“The interview was more about the
person—what you stand for on particular issues. Some had nothing
to do with tourism,” he explains. “I was caught flatfooted. One
of the first questions was, ‘What’s the difference between your
work in congress and your work now in the cabinet?’ I never
thought about it. Another one was, ‘If there is conflict between
your direct responsibility, your present position and public
interest, what will be your stand?’”
He savors the fact of having passed the muster
of acclaimed environmentalists. He reveals, “The three people that
nominated me—and I only found out now only after the second
panel—were: Mayor [Edward] Hagedorn [of Puerto Princesa City,
Palawan]; Bibith Gozun, the former secretary of DENR [Department of
Environment and Natural Resources]; and Atty. [Antonio] Oposa,
environmental lawyer.”
“I was told I was the only one who got a
unanimous vote on the second round. On the final interview, I guess
they believed that I stand for what the award symbolizes.”
A nation worth saving and loving
It is only fitting that the award honors the
tourism industry. More than any textbook or political rally, it is
travel that inspires the most nationalism. Embroiled for far too
long in the nine-to-five grind of the city, far too many Filipinos
fail to realize a Philippines of world-class art museums,
crystalline caves, gigantic creatures and valiant people—a nation
we can be proud of anywhere in the world, a country worth saving and
loving.
Durano shares the accomplishment he is proudest
of: “What we’ve achieved is real prosperity for these rural
communities while at the same time ensuring the posterity of the
environment in which they inhabit. At the end of the day, when you
look at developing countries, the biggest challenge is how you
balance these.”
With eco-tourism, former bird and turtle
poachers become environmental protectors and tourist guides.
Fishermen who once destroyed the reef with dynamite and sodium
cyanide now patrol and clean its beaches. Common folk become
knowledgeable on such issues as biodiversity and sustainable
development. They now know their livelihoods and way of life depend
on it. The transformation has slowly been happening for the past few
decades. The change is dramatic—as majestic as the natural beauty
that has returned to the countryside. Like all successes, it has
many fathers.
“I have to mention all the partners we were
working with because we are a very small organization. Despite our
size, we work with very committed partners.”
“We’ve worked with USAID [United States
Agency for International Development] in Puerto Galera for their
coastal resource management. With the influx of scuba divers there,
we had to make sure that the resource why scuba divers are going
there are not depleted.” Besides its world-class dive sites,
Mindoro boasts of the misty Mount Halcon and its indigenous Dumagat
people.
“We are very present in Palawan, most
specifically Puerto Princesa in a project with [ABS-CBN] Bantay
Kalikasan,” he notes. From the port city of Puerto Princesa,
visitors can access some of the most glorious sites in the world:
turtle, dugong, humpback whale and coral sanctuaries perfect for
scuba diving; virgin rain forests populated by hulking trees that
shelter both the outdoorsman and indigenous species such bearcats,
porcupines and deer; glorious limestone cliffs and caves perfect for
the intrepid spelunker; and placid emerald lagoons that are a
kayaker’s dream; and the transplanted free-roaming giraffes and
zebras of Calauit island that provide an authentic safari
experience.
“In Visayas, we were the ones along with three
barangays in Boracay that put up the solid waste management
facility. Because of that, the open dump was closed. In the past,
besides the sewage, there was an open dump in the island. But
because of the solid waste management system we put in place with
the barangays, the municipality made money off the site because
investors bought the land [of the former dumpsite] because they
could use it for their development. Not only that, the solid waste
management is operated by the three barangays. They make money out
of it.”
Once marred by coliform bacteria blooms feeding
off the pollution and by the haphazard development of various
foreign resort owners who usurped the land from the indigenous Ati,
Boracay, long the most popular destination for international
travelers, today stands at the precipice of over-development and
over-commercialization. The talcum powder fine white sand beach, its
emerald waters and its lush hillsides are being crowded far beyond
the island’s capacity to recover from abuse or to provide its
residents water.
“In Donsol, one of the more popular
eco-tourism programs, we did it with Bantay Kalikasan and WWF [World
Wildlife Fund]. It enhanced the livelihood of the people there.
Tricycle drivers that once earned P100 a day now earn P1,000 a day
as Butanding [whale shark] Interaction Officers. A fifth class
municipality is now a third class municipality because of
eco-tourism,” he attests. Besides the wondrous spectacle of
swimming alongside peaceable gargantuan whale sharks, Donsol now
offers romantic nighttime boat rides to view fireflies—millions of
them swarming, glowing and transforming riverside mangroves into
living Christmas trees. “That’s to broaden the tourism activity
in Donsol,” he explains.
“In Bohol, we are already working with the
province to properly develop the biggest river system on the
island—the Abatan River. We want to make sure that this will be an
improvement on the development of the Loboc River. We’ve been
working closely with the Philippine Tarsier Foundation. Tourism will
contribute closely to their conservation.” Long famous for its
Chocolate Hills, Bohol is also noted for its musical culture,
preeminent of which is the world-renowned Loboc Children’s Choir.
Cruising down its rivers, one can see amid pastoral scenes worthy of
an Amorsolo painting, rural families each possessing a musical
instrument in its home.
“We are working with the Haribon Foundation
and the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines on bird watching. If we
are so proud about our marine biodiversity—the reason why we have
so many scuba divers coming to the Philippines—our bird specie
diversity is just as rich. We have the highest concentration of bird
species in the world. We have about 600, 200 of that endemic—can
only be found in the Philippines. We have a neighbor, Taiwan, which
is know for bird-watching, that has only seven species.” Though
the country is blessed with spectacular migratory bird sanctuaries
such as the Agusan and Candaba marshes, Durano explains, “For our
first push, we chose 13 sites because of their accessibility all
over the country. This is another natural asset of ours that we have
not used to benefit rural communities.”
In many parts of the country, farmers with air
guns still take potshots at migratory birds, Durano notes, “This
was the same thing happening in Donsol until they made a livelihood
out of protecting wildlife.”
Involving rural communities—the very
stakeholders in the environment—in protecting natural wonders and
other tourist attractions has become the hallmark of Durano’s
policy as DOT secretary. “It’s the only way. You cannot be
policing all the thousands of barangays. Once you give them a
financial stake in the sustainability of their surroundings, then
you create this virtuous cycle. And we are doing this in the rural
areas.”
Learning to guide
Durano reveals other efforts to improve the
experience of different sort of traveler: the foreign NGO volunteer
here has to learn our ways. “We have already partnered with GK
[Gawad Kalinga] communities as social tourism destinations. There
are a lot of people coming here to volunteer and to study the
success of GK. These communities can be microcosms of this country,
showing what we can do if we come together.”
The DOT’s involvement with Gawad Kalinga
communities extends beyond facilitating the immersion and
volunteerism of foreign NGO workers. He explains, “For very GK
community, there is a core of GK ladies. Most of them didn’t
finish high school. We’ve trained them to be tour guides with some
historical and information about their community.”
Durano also reveals developments on the opposite
side of the educational spectrum: “Starting next year, we will
start a tour guiding institute. It is a program we’ve put together
with National Artists and the renowned academics in the country.”
He further reveals that the two-week course plans to initially
graduate thirty guides early next year. Those who pass its exams are
then toured throughout the country as part of their course. Those
who graduate automatically become part of the World Tour Guide
Association.
This development is long overdue. In Egypt for
example, all tour guides are required to graduate from a course in
Egyptology and must master no less than two foreign languages.
However, there are no plans as of yet to make certification a
requirement of tour guides. “What we want is to raise the standard
by setting an example,” he explains, adding “In Europe, being a
tour guide is such proud work. And that’s what we want—young
people to see it as a career path.”
Only knowledgeable tour guides can provide a
historical and cultural narrative—the exciting stories, legends
and anecdotes behind monuments and places that would otherwise be
meaningless statues, plaque markers and bell towers to a clueless
foreigner. “Monuments cannot speak for themselves. So you need
very good tour guides to bring them to life,” he says. Already
some citizens have taken the initiative and have organized guided
walking tours such as those of Binondo and Intramuros.
“It’s not just about protecting natural
wonders. In the urban setting, it’s about protecting a quality of
life—clean surroundings and protecting culture.” In contrast to
the mindset of previous image conscious generations, Durano
believes, “We should never do things for others. We should do it
for us. It just so happens it becomes a better experience for the
tourist as well.” No whitewashed shantytowns for him. He wants
substantive change we can really be proud of. “Travelers today are
more sophisticated. What they want is the authentic experience,”
he observes.
Philippine urban life has as much to offer the
traveler as the countryside. World class and world-beating
galleries—Metropolitan Museum, the Ayala Museum and the gorgeously
refurbished National Museum to name a few—house some of our
greatest artistic and archeological treasures—gold and porcelain
from galleons, masterpieces from National Artists and even entire
whales. To stroll their galleries is to open your eyes in awe and to
hold your head up high as a Filipino.
Love for country is infectious. And there is no
better carrier than Durano. The man brims with optimism. Such energy
allowed him to overcome the inertia of the tourism industry when he
assumed the leadership of DOT in 2004.
“When I came in, the biggest challenge was the
mindset even among industry players that we had too many problems
internally for us to do tourism well.” Durano inherited an
industry battered by the SARS scare, the financial crisis, peace and
order problems. “But now that it is revived and moving forward, I
have to manage properly the impatience. ‘For the first time in
history, we are at the three million [tourist] level. When do we get
to five million?’ they’d ask. We want that energy. But we have
to manage it in such a way that doesn’t destroy the very things
that bring in the tourists.”
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