“CLARK VISITOR arrivals touched a million-plus in the first 10 months despite dearth of data from the Clark International Airport (CRK) for the period August and September.”
So press released the Clark Development Corp. last week. Immediately sense some off-handedness there.
One. The CDC pointing the finger to the Clark International Airport Corp. for some sin of remission in some purely perfunctory bureaucratic function.
So, has inter-agency courtesy given way to sibling rivalry at the Clark Freeport? Two. Why “touched” instead of the usual “reached” for arriving at numbers? Asked the eagle-eyed editor Ashley Manabat. Easily dismissed though as a simple matter of semantics.
Three. Since when did “dearth of data” become a determining factor in the rise – or fall – of visitor arrivals?
Only CDC knows. As only CDC can explain the consistent discrepancy in the number of tourist arrivals in the reports it periodically churns out, not so much to inform the public as to praise itself.
In its PR slugged Clark visitor arrivals reach more than a million in first 10 months and dated 20 October 2014, the CDC wrote: The CDC Tourism and Promotions (TP) office said visitor arrivals at the Freeport reached 1,173,723 based on the total tourist arrivals, same day visitors such as educational tours and other events, and airport arrivals recorded from January to September this year.
January to September is only nine months, not 10 as slugged. If CDC cannot be counted to be accurate with what it can count with the fingers of two hands, how can it be relied upon with figures reaching millions?
So we grant that indeed there were 1,173,723 tourist arrivals at Clark from January to September. So what is there for the CDC to crow about, when the arrivals in the last three months have apparently contracted as against the average monthly arrivals in the first six months.
A CDC PR slugged ‘Dramatic increase’ in 2014 Clark tourist arrivals dated 19 August 2014, reported: In her report to CDC president/CEO Arthur Tugade, TPO manager Noemi Garcia said that Clark tourist visitors both domestic and international increased to 947, 227 from January to June this year…
Simple arithmetic shows a total of 226,496 arrivals for the three months after the first semester cut-off, for a monthly average of 75,498. That is less than half the monthly average of 157,871 in the preceding six months.
CDC’s Tourism Promotions Office ought to be shot…er, shut down. With such monumental failure. And clearly no “dearth of data” to (ir) rationalize (non)performance there. Come to think of it, has the CDC that uncontrollable impulse to play with numbers whenever the opportunity arises? Is doctoring data intrinsic in the CDC?
Most probably. As this throwback to August 19, 2014 with the piece God Almighty is CEO of CDC in this space would validate: “…Furthered the PR of August 19: A total of 137,760 day visitors, 78,636 events and 59,124 educational tours has been recorded in the first half. Airport arrivals, on the other hand, were pegged at 240,563.
WOW to the highest Heavens now!…In only the first half of 2014, in only six months, in all of only 181 days, Clark successfully hosted 78,636 events and 59,124 educational tours! That’s 434.45 events a day! That’s 326.65 educational tours a day!
Truly, specific acts of divine creation at the CDC there. As in God making the heavens and the earth and all that is in it in six days. Yeah, it could only be that God – Father, Son and Holy Ghost – is President-CEO of CDC. No mere mortal can transcend human finiteness and wield such acts of omnipotence. Yes, only God. Only the One God…”
Re-reading this now moves me to the strong resolve that, henceforth, I shall prostrate myself in adoration upon coming to the presence of God Almighty at the CDC – Tugade, it can only be.
