Elements of Surprise

In early May, Romulo-Puyat was called to Malacañan to explain something about agriculture. After her presentation, President Rodrigo Duterte asked, from out of the blue, if she could be his Tourism Secretary. The top position in the Department of Tourism had just become vacant after the President accepted the resignation of Secretary Wanda Teo, following public uproar over issues of nepotism and anomalous transactions. Duterte stressed upon the surprised undersecretary that he has long known her parents (Development Bank of the Philippines Chairman Alberto Romulo and the former Lovely Tecson); he is her third president in the DA, hinting perhaps that she has already served the department well as an undersecretary and it was time to move on; and that she has kept her name clean.

“I was in shock!” Romulo-Puyat recalled. “I did not think it was real!”

Later in the day, she posted the photo of an espasol (sweet rice cake) on Facebook and one of those who instantly commented was Secretary Bong Go, special assistant to the president, with the simple, and, short but enigmatic, “Congratulations, Madam!” For someone so close to President Duterte to post in this public forum something related to what she had just been offered must be a statement about the seriousness of the appointment.

Romulo-Puyat’s first instinct was to consult with her daughter, Maia (Vito, her other child with the late lawyer Dave Puyat, is now back in Manila after studies in the Newcastle University, UK, where he graduated with a psychology with honours course). “I told my daughter that I may have just been offered the post of Tourism Secretary, that it may be a joke but if it was for real, what should I do?” she said. “Maia answered, ‘Mum, you have always been passionate about our country.’ I took this to mean she approved and believed in my capacity to do a good job.” 

Without being served an official appointment yet, Romulo-Puyat did not want to make presumptions. She still went about her normal routine, attending DA meetings and reporting for work. This amid the outpouring of congratulatory remarks and speculations in the media, so much so that even her mum asked her if what she’s heard from the news was true. “It was so surreal!” Romulo-Puyat recalled.

On the 15th of May, the dust settled: the Agriculture Undersecretary became the Tourism Secretary. Her first day at work was 15 May and her appointment was confirmed on 30 May, one of the swiftest actions from the bicameral Commission on Appointments—six minutes.

If the appointment was a surprise, the task was not anything new to her. After all, she has been promoting food—slow food, particularly—and farming. Romulo-Puyat’s only concern then was the closure of Boracay. The prime tourist destination of the country was ordered closed by President Duterte on 26 April for the island’s six-month environmental rehabilitation programme. The Tourism Secretary remembered thinking then, “Oh my gosh, Boracay is closed. Tourism numbers will definitely go down and people might say this was because of me.”

To her surprise, and delight as well, tourist arrivals in June increased by 11.35 per cent as compared to the same month the year before; and July figures increased by 5.8 per cent. “I believe that when Boracay closed, our tourists, be they local or foreign, discovered other destinations like Siargao, Bohol, Bicol, Palawan, Cebu, that the Philippines is not just Boracay.”

Romulo-Puyat credits the private sector, specifically the tour operators, for this good performance. “A Tourism Secretary can never be successful without the private sector. In our case, we make sure we maintain a close relationship with the Tourism Congress of the Philippines. I regularly meet with them and am always accessible whenever they need me. They are the movers of tourism, really,” she said, adding that she met with this sector as early as on her second day in office.

She also makes sure communications lines are open with stakeholders. In DA, these were mostly the farmers; in DOT, almost everyone. As was the first action she took regarding the Boracay problem. “I first met with the island’s stakeholders because I must first listen to all their problems,” she shared.

Boracay’s scheduled opening was 26 October. The new Tourism Secretary, upon whose lap landed the much-publicised island rehabilitation, cautioned against high expectations but promised enough significant changes towards sustainable tourism. “Six months is not enough to rehabilitate an island!” she first said, before proceeding to mention what Task Force Boracay, with a two-year mandate to finish its mission, had done. The list included the enforcement of the 25-metre easement as well as the no-drinking and no-smoking laws on Boracay’s world-famous beach. Only e-tricycles will be allowed but fireworks will be banned as, she said, this is against sustainable tourism.

“You see, the laws are there; it’s just a matter of enforcing them,” stressed Romulo-Puyat.

Skip the two-hour long land transfer from Kalibo to Boracay with Mabuhay Maritime Express

Because of the Boracay example, the DOT was tasked by President Duterte to do the same for other tourist destinations. “He set Boracay as an example, a model so everybody will follow environmental laws, local ordinances, executive orders that focus on sustainability. He added that we should not focus on numbers alone, we must take care that the environment does not suffer,” she reported her presidential mandate which she is just so happy to follow, believing that sustainability is the direction tourism should go.

Apart from the revelation to many tourists that the Philippines offers more destinations than Boracay, Romulo-Puyat also cited several tour packages that can be developed, like those involving diving, adventure, heritage, crafts, and food.

“But everything can, and must be sustainable,” she reiterated. She is most pleased about how the fashion industry is practicing sustainability. “The young designers are not just into local materials, they also recycle fabrics,” she said, adding that this has also attracted a young clientele.

Redesigning the Landscape

The tourism statistics are good. The 2022 goal for the National Tourism Development Plan was 86 million domestic tourists. “It hit 96.7 million in 2017,” Romulo-Puyat reported. The 2022 goal of tourism contribution to economic growth is 10 per cent; last year it already hit 12.2 per cent.

Because of this picture, the new Tourism Secretary saw a great potential in domestic tourism. She cited the island of Siquijor as the popular destination now which, like many of the places in the Philippines, was discovered by foreigners. “Sometimes, it’s the foreigners who discover us,” she said.

For heritage tourism, she mentioned Vigan. “Even the design of the McDonald’s there is not modern,” she said. She also gushed over Dapitan, where the country’s National Hero, Dr Jose Rizal was incarcerated. “I learnt more about Rizal during my visit to Dapitan,” she said.

According to her, the private sector is ready and raring to go with its promotions of these different destinations as well as varied theme tours. She believes it should be given ample support by government, especially with infrastructure.

“Connectivity is important in the Philippines, given that we are an archipelago. 98 per cent of our tourists enter the country by air, quite different from our neighbouring countries in the Asean region which are mostly landlocked and may be simply accessed through land travel,” she said, obviously happy over the fast construction of airports, which she calls “our doorways.” She cited the new Mactan Cebu airport and the soon-to-open Panglao airport as well as the secondary airports that the Department of Transportation and Communications [DOTC] is constructing.

To attract more tourists, she also saw the need to provide an easier system for tourists at immigration. “We asked the Department of Justice [DOJ] to find some way to shorten the usual long lines that happen when tourists embark and go through immigration. And they did! A month ago, the DOJ developed a system for Philippine passport holders to just swipe their passports and not queue anymore. That is just one solution,” Romulo-Puyat said.

Romulo-Puyat’s long-standing and unsullied career in government sees a parallel in two of her kin who went before her. 

First is the late great Carlos P Romulo, her great granduncle. The diminutive hero wore many hats—from war correspondent to general, from diplomat to Cabinet Secretary—the highlights of which could be his stint as president of the Fourth Session of the United Nations General Assembly (1949-1950), the first Asian to hold the position; winning the Pulitzer Prize in Correspondence in 1942, the first non-American to do so; and being named the country’s National Artist for Literature.

Second is Romulo-Puyat’s father, Alberto or Bert, who served in government under several administrations as Executive Secretary, Finance Secretary, Budget Secretary, Foreign Affairs Secretary. He was also elected senator and became a member of the national legislature from 1987-1998.

Like these two gentlemen, the Tourism Secretary, an economics graduate from the University of the Philippines, has been serving in government in many ways since 2001, with her first appointment as a consultant for the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. This was followed by a consultancy with the Presidential Management Staff in 2005, deputy Cabinet secretary with the Office of the President in 2006, Undersecretary of Agriculture in 2007, and Secretary of Tourism in 2018.

Life in the corridors of power is tough but this woman, in all her femininity, is surviving. “Just work and stay away from politics,” she gave the secret of her survival. She follows this up with a bit of a sage advice from her father: “Lawyer up. Never sign anything until your lawyers have looked through it thoroughly.” 

One last thing. “You just have to love what you do,” she concluded.

According to Romulo-Puyat, her appointment as Tourism Secretary is co-terminus with the Duterte administration. But if her path is, indeed, like the two Romulos before her, she’s still got a long way to go.

Photographer: MJ Suayan | Art Direction: Anton San Diego | Styling: Monique Madsen | Make Up: Jonathan Velasco | Hairstylist: Jermelson Celestino | Location: Ayuntamiento de Manila