August
2001 - Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon invited Singaporean to visit
Philippines. He said that Philippines
having 1.8 million tourists a year compared to Thailand with 7.5 million
visitors and Malaysia with 10 million arrivals. But Gordon sought to dispel the
Philippine image as unsafe for tourist and businessmen because of the spate of kidnappings
for ransom. Gordon said the kidnappings are isolated only in part of southern
island of Mindanao, noting that the archipelago has more than 7000 islands.
During
our personal talk with Arroyo and Gordon, they said “now is the time to prove
our mettle as a nation and as a people and we can start our economic rebirth
wherever we are by thinking Filipino, buying Filipino and investing Filipino.” Arroyo and Gordon entice us to invest
business in the country to boast the economic rebirth. A compliment of free air ticket was
given to us (me) to visit Philippines.
