New Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat had no choice but to hit the ground running, what with a Department of Tourism that’s suffered for two years under one Wanda Tulfo-Teo, who (and I repeat) already had a blind item against her as early as November 2016, only so many months into office. That blind item would be confirmed as true by the complaint of Concerned DOT Employees in June 2017, a complaint that was left ignored by the Office of the President and Bong Go’s Presidential Action Center.

Romulo-Puyat should also be looking at all those “shows” that have USec Kat de Castro traveling the country, talking about different sites, eating food, doing activities — it is so badly made, and it is unclear who it is talking to, that it is clearly a waste of public funds given just its lack of clear vision, audience, and goodness gracious, terrible production values. And please please, nip that proposal to build a Nickolodeon in El Nido, and to hold the Miss Universe pageant in the country AGAIN, when there has yet to even be an accounting of the money DOT spent for the last Miss U Pageant here.

Hoorays are in order though: Romulo-Puyat is looking into the travesty that is Cesar Montano, and thank heavens for that. This is a man after all who already had a corruption complaint filed against him — again with Go’s Presidential Action Center — in March 2017, which is also proof positive that Duterte’s “no to corruption” stance is only applicable to some people, but not to others (it took him two years to fire Wanda Teo after all).

But Romulo-Puyat shouldn’t just be looking at whether Buhay Carinderia is legal or not. She should be looking at whether the project is even well thought out, if it is necessary at all, and if in fact it will serve the karinderya owners, the communities that cradle them, and tourism — the kind that will bring in foreigners because of our food. This is not merely about whether it’s above board, it’s about whether or not the P80-million pesos the P320 million pesos could not be used for better, say, for real projects that push for the karenderya, bakery, street food, as reason enough for tourists to visit. 

Because there is nothing about this P80-million-peso P320-million-peso project that sounds even remotely rational. In fact, all of it sounds like an opportunity to earn from taxpayers’ money, waste public funds, while using notions of “helping out” small business owners, and “promoting” the Philippines as a destination, even when both are far-fetched outcomes.

Montano’s “Buhay Carinderia–Redefined” is what a private endeavour and “advocacy,” ties up with government and tries to “innovate” on what is nothing more than a promotional exercise for sponsors and businesses. Carinderia Fiesta had been operating since 2011, gathering “eateries” at the World Trade Center for a two day festival and forum to:

inspire carinderia owners and operators, they were also given tips by Via Mare on presentation techniques. Beauty and fashion expert Rene Salud also gave tips on grooming, personal cleanliness and presentation skills. There was also a cooking contest in nine food categories and an exhibit about the history and evolution of carinderias.

For real? Presentation skills? Grooming and personal cleanliness? For the karenderya. 

So see, the original Fiesta Carinderia was not about developing our food culture through the karenderya, not at all about serving a bigger purpose. It was nothing noble, but see, without public funds, we don’t need to care.

Now fueled by public funds courtesy of Montano’s leadership of the Tourism Promotions Board, “Buhay Carinderia–Redefined” reeks of the kind of unprofessional, un-credentialed, thoughtless projects that we have seen Duterte’s men churn out, across the different offices. These are projects that are all about media mileage — look at all the websites they invited to their launch! — and not much else. These are projects that once scrutinized reveal nothing more than money changing hands, a lack of transparency, shallow conceptualization, and a question of public funds being wasted.

This might not easily fall under corruption, but seriously now: this government’s incompetence leading to questionable, pointless, thoughtless projects is a waste of public funds, which equals corruption.

But I digress. According to the press releases for Montano’s “Buhay Carinderia — Redefined,” this project has now evolved — what with an P80-million budget — to mean a competition among the different karenderyas in the regions, where regional winners will be given the opportunity to compete in the national competition that will happen in Manila.

This, after six months of traveling across the country, for the chosen board of judges, and of course Montano and his staff at the TPB, and don’t forget, Erwan Heussaff as their “influencer” and “content creator.” Let us note that they will all be traveling on taxpayers’ money.

Heussaff is also being paid by public funds, to do whatever it is he is supposed to be for this project — which makes little sense given that he has proven what a failure he is when it comes to talking about local food culture as we experience it every day, i.e., not the fancy shmancy restaurants he runs or frequents, not the food he cooks for himself. According to this press release, he was hired because of his millions of online followers — the worst reason to hire him, or anyone, for that matter. (But then again, this is a government that believes in Mocha — but I digress.)

According to the organizers, Buhay Carinderia is about gastronomy tourism. Linda Legaspi, the private organizer:

Gastronomy is one of the fastest-growing reasons for people to travel. Buhay Carinderia-Redefined believes that gastronomy tourism has strong potentials to improve a destination, promote culture and contribute to other sectors, such as agriculture and food manufacturing.

Certainly what she says about gastronomy tourism is true. But it doesn’t take a genius to see why and how there is absolutely nothing here that would allow for gastronomy tourism to thrive on the level of community karenderyas and eateries and street food. For one thing, there is no real government initiative that seeks to assist, develop, and improve these spaces, and no financial support that would enable them to become safer and tourist-friendly. Now, spending P320 MILLION on what essentially is a competition, is just absurd, because a competition is not what makes for developing these small businesses. In fact, if the goal is to make these karenderyas, eateries, and street food vendors tourist-friendly, the task is to spend that money on these small businesses.

All other projects that use influencers like Heussaff, that have stupid (not to mention false) advertisements that claim that these spaces are safe and clean, that have a private entrepreneur earning millions from this exercise, is a waste of public funds.

It also gives off the stench of corruption. P320-million-pesos worth. ***