Tourism industry stalwart Robert “Bobby” Lim Joseph has joined calls for Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat to step down, saying rank and file employees at the Department of Tourism have complained of her “bad attitude and incompetency.”
In a statement, Joseph said he joined Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte in calling out Puyat’s management style in relation to her approval of contracts and projects in the tourism department.
A businessman for over 40 years and the current commodore of the Manila Yacht Club, Joseph said Romulo “does not listen to suggestions from tourism old-timers like him” and whenever she is asked about matters related to her department, “she dodges the questions and passes them on to her staff.”
The Standard could not reach Puyat or the DOT for comment at press time.
Duterte first hit Puyat during the House’s plenary deliberations on the DOT’s proposed 2020 budget. The President’s son complained he was losing sleep over Romulo and got turned off by her “attitude.”
Joseph, who is chairman of the Network of Independent Travel Agents (NITAS), said Puyat has been Tourism Secretary for over a year now, “but has not accomplished anything beneficial for the tourism industry.”
Joseph said he has been involved in tourism since 1969, when he was 19 years old, was long-time president of NITAS, and co-organized the Tourism Educators and Movers Philippines (Team Philippines) and the League of Tourism Students of the Philippines (LTSP).
He is currently the chair of SKAL International Makati, an international organization of top executives representing all branches of the travel and tourism industry, and is chair of MAD Travel, Lakbay Museo, and Paraiso Farm.
Unknown to many, Joseph is living with cancer, yet spent most of his adult life in the tourism industry, working for the improvement of the sector he has come to love and embrace.
Joseph said he was “greatly dissatisfied” with Puyat, and “a lot of people are getting more and more dissatisfied” with the tourism secretary.
“One time I attended an event, and [Puyat] claimed for an open dialogue to avoid miscommunications and asked her about the Tourism Congress, but she asked the president of TCP to answer for her because she didn’t know the issue. But I noticed she was already throwing tantrums,” he said.
“I sent her a letter about the Tourism Congress last February, until to date no reply. Then I asked her again about another topic related to the industry, but she cut me and seemed annoyed. Romulo should answer all the questions herself and not her staff,” Joseph added.
Puyat “avoids industry meetings, gets irritated when she cannot answer, and throws tantrums that is so unbecoming of a public servant. I tried to reach out to her, but she is indifferent. Frankly speaking, I’m not satisfied with her performance,” he said in his statement.