Macau Tourism promoter to be awarded P15 Million bid for formulating Philippine National Tourism Development Plan

DoT Bidding for National Tourism Development Plan, LUTONG MACAU?

The Department of Tourism (DoT) is about to award or has already awarded a P15 Million contract to Indra Philippines/Asia Pacific Projects despite failing to pass the score requirement for the bid.

The DoT recently bid out a contract for the development of a 5-Year National Tourism Development Plan and required that the winning bidder should garner a score of at least 85 %.  The National Tourism Development Plan will basically tell the entire Philippine Tourism industry what areas will be developed for tourism and how it will be marketed to the entire world.  Read that as crafting the master plan which will mark out where billions of pesos of tourism development and promotion funds will go.

Suddenly, the P 5 Million spent on the non-launch of the failed "Pilipinas Kay Ganda" tourism slogan seems like a drop in the bucket. 

Indra Philippines/Asia Pacific Projects consortium scored 83.5 in the technical proposal submitted to the department’s bid and awards committee.  Palafox Associates, the architectural firm of Felino Palafox Jr., got a score of 76 percent.  SMEC Philippines/Tourism Resource Consultants, P-Square Associates and Woodfields Consultants participated in the bid and garnered even lower scores.

Asia Pacific Projects' key principal is Narz Lim, the  Macau Government Tourist Office-Philippines General Manager. (Refer to the last paragraph of an article by Inquirer Lifestyle columnist Maurice Arcache http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20090317-194682/Dazzling-golden-anniversary)

What is funny is that after informing the bidders of the scores of their respective bids where in all failed to meet the required 85%, they were informed in another meeting that Asia Pacific Projects actually won the bid after the scores were "transmuted".

From a "raw score" of 83 percent, Indra Philippines/Asia Pacific Projects suddenly got a grade of 87 percent -- meeting the score requirement for the bid.

LUTONG MACAU

Under other circumstances, perhaps the other bidders would have asked for a re-bidding of the project and given themselves additional time to make the grade.  However, for some reason, all the other participating bidders just decided to walk away from the table.

And that some reason is Narzalina "Narz" Z. Lim -- who is of no relation to the current Tourism Secretary Alberto "Bertie" Lim.  But that is not to say that the two don't have a history, working together in the Freedom-to-Fly Coalition that advocated open-skies in the Philippines.  Both are also staunch Cory and Noynoy supporters.

According to the Asia Pacific Projects website, comprising the other part of the consortium 

Narzalina Z. Lim is a key principal who established APPI in 1992 after many years serving as Undersecretary and later Secretary of Tourism of the Philippines. Her areas of expertise are in tourism planning and development, policy formulation, and human resource development and training. She graduated with a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Narz Lim was Undersecretary of Tourism during Cory Aquino's time from 1986 to 1991 and then served as Secretary of Tourism in 1992.

In addition to this, word is that Narz Lim led Asia Pacific Projects in helping craft the previous National Tourism Development Plan which didn't fair too well.

A number of people have said that the previous National Tourism Development Plan was of dubious value since not many in the tourism industry knew about it and those who knew about it found it "unimplementable."

A tourism business operator opined:

I had been in the INBOUND Tourism business since 1984, more than 25 years now, and there had been TOURISM MASTER DEVELOPMENT PLANS galore. All these brilliant Touirsm Master Plans were just rotting away in file , even their old rusty filing cabinets cannot be found already! I had been looking for this in Boracay too but to no avail! Each Administration to each his own political agenda... or worse kanya kanyang kurakot so no solid long term SUSTAINABLE Development & Tourism plans are implemented! 

Apart from ignoring the dubious value of the previous NTDP, the more disconcerting fact perhaps is the tip off that Narz Lim is already working  as the representative of the Macau Tourism Office in Manila.

See this Google Search for Narz Lim and Macau Tourism here.

I don't know if the Department of Tourism took it into consideration that the head of the corporation that is going to create our country's tourism plan for the next five years is actually being paid a bigger amount to sell Macau Tourism.

The thing is, the news media ain't picking this up... Masarap siguro ang Lechong Macau.

Tourism Usec. Vicente Romano III admits hiring daughter for Pilipinas kay ganda launch

Former Usec. Romano with Tourism Sec. Bertie Lim
Photo Source http://annaoposa.ph/2010/07/

Delicadeza or iwas pusoy?  This was the question that I've been asking since Tourism Undersecretary Enteng Romano resigned and got lauded for the supposed act of delicadeza.

I actually lauded him right before I started thinking that Romano was actually acting with the approval of both President Noynoy Aquino and Tourism Secretary Bertie Lim.  The act of resigning for the bungled tourism re-branding project was therefore more to save face for the President and the Tourism Secretary, therefore making Romano a patsy.

And GOOD GOD did my blood boil when I heard former Vice President Noli De Castro read several documents saying that DENISE ROMANO, the daughter of Tourism Usec. Romano, actually benefited from several contracts awarded for the launching of the "Pilipinas kay ganda" slogan and logo.  De Castro it seems, was reading from a document that said that the company of a certain Winston Desiderio was used as a FRONT for DENISE ROMANO.  The two or three contracts were worth well over P1,000,000.

Now. here comes Usec. Romano admitting that he actually had his daughter hired for the relaunch of the Pilipinas kay ganda.  But the thing is, Usec. Romano says that his daughter did the job PRO-BONO -- which suggests that she was not paid for her services.

Really? Really! Well... The thing is THIS REVELATION FOLLOWS only after Tourism Undersecretary Bertie Lim was discovered lying about the cost of the event.  So after we discover one lie, are we now expected to believe this fluff?

A friend says, whether or not DENISE ROMANO was indeed paid for her services, it is still nepotism.

This comes from the blog of RG Cruz:

Resigned Tourism Undersecretary Vicente Romano confirmed to ABS-CBN News that his daughter Denise was involved in the launch of the Pilipinas Kay Ganda Project last November 15. Romano says he asked Denise, a director of corporate events and presentations for private companies, to handle the events direction since he wanted someone he could trust.

Romano indicated to ABS-CBN that he put a premium on the urgency of the project over the possible questions of impropriety and delicadeza in hiring Denise. “Yung daughter ko ang kinuha kong director malinaw yun na pro bono yun. Ang dahilan dun kaya ko siya kunuha we had 3-4 weeks of preparations I needed someone I can trust medyo technical ang production. Ako di ko kinoconsider na improperity yun I just want to deliver a good event para makumbinse na yung pupunta that brand is something they can introduce”

Denise is a broadcast communication graduate form the University of the Philippines-Diliman. She is currently head of an events company whose clients include big companies. “she heads events company called csi yun yung mga kliyente microsoft cisco, kaya siya kuha ko experienced siya sa corporate events”

Romano says his daughter directed the event pro-bono. Romano however clarified that neither  Denise nor anyone from his family was involved in the events supplier hired for the project, Ten Inch. “isa sa mga pinakalamalaki yan they had several projects before”

Romano says Ten Inch is a long time supplier of the DOT and won the contract for the project from an open bidding.

Romano says he is saddened Denise is being linked to the controversy “dun ako nalulungkot pinpilit na ilink siya…kumabaga nakadapa na nga…concern ko kasi roon was in production highly technical I just wanted to make sure hindi papalpak.I made it clear I introduced her to the team given time constraint I preferred to consider na successful dapat yung launch.”

Romano says the almost P5m he spent for the night of the launch alone was justified and even less expensive than similar events in the private sector.

“Just to put in perspective typical corporate event will be more expensive. Maski sa dot pakalkal mo lahat ng evants na stage nila This is very comparable considering you have 700”

Romano urged his critics to move on.

For his part, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim told ABS-CBN by phone that he is investigating the involvement of Romano’s daughter, though he hastened to add that any administrative liabilities have been extinguished by his resignation. Lim say “ it’s a matter of delicadeza” on Romano’s part.