PH tourism needs infra solutions; Grab’s penalties continue to mount

THERE’S nothing wrong with promoting emerging and lesser-known destinations across the Philippines to make it a tourism powerhouse in Asia. The sector needs all the help it can get to compete with rival tourism spots in the region, especially in Southeast Asia.

Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco was spot-on when she vowed to prioritize the marketing of unsung destinations in the country, akin to a successful tourism program in her home province Cebu, which aided local governments in developing lesser-known tourism sites.

Frasco referred to Cebu’s experience, its SuroySuroy Sugbo program, which her mother, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, introduced in 2004. Ms. Frasco wants to replicate Suroy-Suroy Sugbo, or wandering in Cebu, throughout the Philippine archipelago. The travel industry credited the program for making destinations like Bantayan, Camotes and southern Cebu more popular to local and international tourists. But bringing in tourists to less-traveled destinations will remain a challenge. Potential visitors to these little-known places will never get to see them if the government does not provide infrastructure and logistics support to the tourism sector. The Philippines, for one, does not offer modern airports that could provide seamless travel to the preferred destinations of tourists.

The Philippines is probably the only nation in the world that does not have a modern airport with railway links. For one foreign tourist, traveling from the airport to his local destination spot could be a nightmare. American and European airports complement theirs with metros, or subways. The rail connection offers foreign tourists in the Philippines an option to avoid chaotic road traffic conditions in getting to their next immediate destination.

Getting out of the airport and motoring to lesserknown destinations as suggested by Ms. Frasco will not be a smooth ride for the travel-weary tourist. Besides, the country’s transport logistics are not run by professional organizations. How many times have we heard of foreign tourists being milked by cab drivers from the airport on their way to their dream tourism spot?

Additional sanction

Ride-hailing app Grab Philippines found itself in hot water again after the Philippine Competition Commission slapped it with another P9-million fine for failure to fully refund its customers more than three years after the PCC first ordered the reimbursement. The PCC first ordered Grab to refund P25.45-million to riders in 2019 and issued a second order in December of the same year. The agency then issued a third refund order in October 2020 for failure to deliver on the price monitoring commitment of the foreign-owned ride hailing service.

The PCC in 2022 told Grab to immediately release the remaining P19.3 million in refund to passengers after finding the ride-hailing app’s low disbursement of the refunds from previous fines.

After reviewing the compliance reports for previous penalties, the PCC found that just 24.1 percent of the total refund has been claimed from Grab by eligible passengers as of June 15, 2021, or P6.15 million out of the total P25.45-million penalty required by the PCC to be returned to Grab users.

The latest fine consists of P6 million for its alleged violation of the three separate orders issued by the PCC and P3 million for providing incorrect and misleading information in the compliance reports that the company submitted on the refund orders.

The latest penalties are on top of the over P63 million in fines the PCC imposed on Grab for violation of orders from the anti-trust body following its acquisition of Uber way back in 2018.

Grab did not take the latest penalties lightly.

“... we are surprised at PCC’s decision to fine us― given that we’ve been proactively engaging with them for over a year with proposals for alternative mechanisms to disburse the remaining administrative fees,” said Grab in a statement. The company added it would evaluate legal options over the additional P9million fine.

Grab should tread the industry carefully after virtually creating a monopoly in the Philippines and giving the Filipino riding public little option in the ride-hailing service. The domination of one industry sector invites regulatory scrutiny and carries a price.

E-mail: rayenano@yahoo.com or extrastory2000@gmail.com watch negative” owing to the standoff.

The announcement raised the possibility of a first downgrade since another ratings agency, S&P Global, did so during a similar standoff in 2011.

But there is still plenty of rancor on Capitol Hill, with some Republicans even questioning whether the United States is even likely to default at all, despite warnings about the potential economic chaos it would cause.

Meanwhile, Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans had abandoned their jobs in Washington to go on holiday.

“And these Republicans, they’re going to say that Joe Biden refused to sit down with them,” he added.

Still, the broad consensus is for the borrowing limit to eventually be raised at the 11th hour, after a period of brinkmanship.

Wall Street had a mixed Thursday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 surging higher thanks to a rally in tech firms fueled by a blockbuster sales forecast from chip giant Nvidia.

And Asian markets mostly rose on Friday.

Tokyo led the way thanks to a weaker yen and softer inflation that had traders betting the Bank of Japan would not tighten monetary policy any time soon. The dollar on Thursday broke past 140 yen for the first time since November, with strong US data fanning expectations the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates again next month.With AFP

Biden vows ‘no default’ on US debt even as lawmakers go on 10-day break

WASHINGTON, USA—President Joe Biden declared Thursday the United States would avoid a disastrous credit default even as lawmakers went on a 10-day break without a deal on raising the nation’s borrowing limit to keep paying the bills.

There are seven days until June 1 —the earliest possible point when the government estimates it could run out of money to service its debts—and missed loan repayments would likely spark a recession, roiling world markets.

But members of the House of Representatives began hitting the road for the Memorial Day recess after their final vote Thursday morning and are not due to return until June 4.

“There will be no default,” Biden said at the White House, adding that his negotiations with Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who leads the narrow majority in the House of Representatives, had been “productive.”

But Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed the Republicans from the House floor, accusing them of having abandoned their jobs in Washington to “risk a dangerous default in a crisis that they’ve created.”

“And these Republicans, they’re go- ing to say that Joe Biden refused to sit down with them,” he added. “That’s a fake narrative that they’ve continued to try to put into the public domain.”

House Republicans are demanding cuts of up to $130 billion, with spending next year capped to 2022 levels, in return for their votes to raise the borrowing cap.

They also want tightened work requirements for benefits claimants and a clawback of unspent pandemic aid dollars.

Military readiness

Democrats reject the proposed cuts and want the Republicans to sign off on a no-strings-attached hike, as they have dozens of times in the past.

Economists have spent months raising the prospect of economic catastrophe should the government default and top military brass added their own dire prognosis Thursday, warning that the crisis would have a “significant negative impact” on troops.

“Readiness clearly would be impacted. So our large-scale exercises that we do at various training centers would probably either slow down or come to a halt in many, many cases,” Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. AFP