BUKOD sa tulong pinansiyal, pagkakaroon ng agarang mapapasukan o hanapbuhay ang kinakailangan ng milyon-milyong manggagawa mula sa sektor ng turismo ng bansa kung kaya malaking bagay ang pagsusulong ng Mababang Kapulungan ng Kongreso na paglalaan ng P10 bilyong tourism infra fund.
Ito ang binigyan-diin ni COOP-NATCCO Partylist Rep. Sabiniano Canama, chairman ng House Committee on Cooperative Development, kasabay ng kanyang panawagan kay Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat na huwag ang interes lamang ng mga malalaking tourism operator ang isaalang-alang sa layuning muling ibangon ang nalugmok na tourism sector ng Filipinas dala ng COVID-19 pandemic.
“We challenge Secretary Romulo-Puyat to identify these big industry players that she is protecting and wants to bail out. The millions of displaced workers in the tourism industry deserve to know why they are being deprived of immediate relief with her insistence in transferring the P10-billion fund for tourism infrastructure to a financing program that will hand out so-called ‘working capital’ loans to a favored few,” tigas na sabi ng kongresista.
“What our local tourist workers need now are jobs, which can be provided by infrastructure investments, given its high multiplier effects of creating employment, generating new businesses and stimulating consumer demand,” giit pa ni Canama.
Nagtataka ang House panel chairnan sa umano’y kawalan ng interes ng kalihim sa P10 bilyong tourism infra fund, na walang dudang malaking tulong sa mga tourist enterprise at worker, bukod pa sa nais ng Kamara na P51 bilyong credit allocation sa pandemic-hit private tourist businesses.
Sa kanyang liham sa mga mambabatas noong August 12, 2020, sinabi ng kalihim na, “If Congress deems it best not to give the whole amount to our tourism stakeholders, it can be allocated to other programs of other departments that would directly address public health current crisis instead of allocating it to TIEZA for infrastructure.”
“With this statement, Puyat has, first, admitted that other sectors other than the tourism industry also need help; and second, adopted a bothersome stand against TIEZA considering that she is the chairperson of its board,” ang tugon naman ni Canama sa sinabi ni Romulo-Puyat. ROMER R. BUTUYAN
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