The embattled heroine of Philippine tourism?

She is under investigation for having signed an tourism promotion agreement with Singapore Airlines. She is under fire for having opened up Intramuros, a historic site in Manila, to the private sector. She is under attack by a private sector suffering from dwindling profits for not doing enough to promote the Philippines. What is a woman to do under such circumstances. Roll over and die or fight on? Philippine Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz Araneta tells Yeoh Siew Hoon she is staying for the fight.

Q: You've been in the portfolio for two years, two very tough years. You sound frustrated. What are your frustrations?
Cruz: Air access - nobody seems to understand the importance of air access. In 1995, when the President liberalised civil aviation policies, the number of tourists doubled and we reached 2.2 million. There were 6.3 million seats available then. By the end of 1999, that was reduced to 4.5 million seats. We are still getting 2.2 million international arrivals and 1.9 million returning Filipinos.

That's fantastic. Imagine what we could do if we had more seats. Thailand has 16 million seats a year and they get eight million international arrivals. If our target for 2004 is for 4.4 million arrivals, I would need nine million seats.

The new Ninoy Aquino Terminal 3 will have capacity for 13 million passengers. Where will they get it with 4.5 million seats?

That's why I signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Singapore Airlines because PAL does not fly to Western Europe which is an important market for us. What do you expect me to do?

Do you remember in September 1998, when I had just taken over and there was the IHRA (International Hotel & Restaurant Association) conference and PAL closed down? I was frantic and only SIA offered to bring in the delegates we had invited. They were in my good books after that.

On July 4 at the Cabinet meeting, the secretary for Economic Planning was talking about air access and said that it was good that the negotiations with the Taiwanese would be resuming as this affected not only tourism, but trade and labour. (TravelWeekly East, July 14).

Then he said, once we have resumed negotiations with Taiwan, it seems that PAL would like to review Korean Air.

I told him, Korea is a very important tourism market. Korean Air is flying 94 percent load factors and Korean tourists have overtaken the Taiwanese in terms of numbers.

If there is a review, I hope it will be for an increase, I said.

Ninety eight percent of our international arrivals come by air. How can we not be concerned with our civil aviation policies? We already have plans for progressive liberalisation. Don't make it so hard for us to implement.

PAL claims there are 11 million seats available, I wish they'd tell me where.

Q: Another frustration?
Cruz: Infrastructure. We have 7,000 islands. The government has not really built or upgraded airports and seaports. We can't even receive all the cruise ships which want to call. It is hard to promote inter-island travel. Not all the roads are in good condition. We are trying to establish seamless travel but look, when you arrive in Manila, it is difficult to get to another terminal.

Q: Some of these sound like very basic things. Why are they so difficult to fix?
Cruz: Perhaps the decision makers don't have the correct attitude to tourism. Perhaps they think it's a matter of printing glossy brochures.

That's my other frustration - the attitude of the people. I feel we Filipinos should not be too sensitive about criticisms, if they are constructive. But it seems it's a case of 'don't take us beyond our smile'. We are nice, warm, smiling people but the minute you criticise us, we will forget the smile.

Q: Are you disillusioned, especially by the case over the SIA agreement?
Cruz: I am confident. I know I didn't do anything wrong.

Q: Did you bargain for all this when you became Tourism Secretary?
Cruz: I had an idea of how difficult it would be but there are surprises everyday.

Q: What are the pluses of the job?
Cruz: President Estrada's declaration that we must develop community-based tourism and sustainable tourism projects. That's the correct orientation. He understands how important it is to invest in the people.

Tourism is a people's business and if you invest in people, you can't go wrong. I go out of my way to build close relations with the private sector and also local government officials. It is important we arouse the pride of place in the Filipinos.

Q: Some critics contend the DoT should be revamped?
Cruz: There is a lot of overlapping. There are five attached agencies. For example, Undersecretary of tourism, Ram Antonio, has international tourism promotions in his job role but we have an attached agency, the Philippine Convention & Visitors Corporation, under Rosvi Gaetos, who is in charge of marketing.

We should abolish Antonio's role and give it to PCVC. We have drafted that proposal - to abolish the DoT unit or integrate it with PCVC or let the PCVC stand on its own. It has strong private sector partners.

We have the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) under Angelito Banayo which is the infrastructure arm but we also have a product development and coordination arm. We are streamlining the department.

Q: You look as though you are enjoying the job despite the headaches. How do you stay cool?
Cruz: Because I have no little sidelines of my own. I am not planning to run for public office. I have no hidden or personal agenda.

Q: Do you find your status as a former beauty queen stands in the way of people taking you seriously?
Cruz: Not in the Philippines. I used to be embarassed when people introduced me first, as the first international beauty queen of the Philippines and then, as the Secretary of Tourism.

But then Estrada said, why should you be embarassed? You should use it.

In the Filipino context, it is a plus - being the first Filipino to become Miss International. Overseas, I try to make sure people don't emphasise that.