LINGAYEN, Pangasinan –
The province’s tourism sector apparently took a beating, with cancellation of
bookings, following a report on a supposed flesh-eating disease spreading in
certain places – which turned out to be false.
“Their presentation of
the report would really scare you,” Mike Sison, city tourism officer of
Alaminos City, said referring to a television news report about two persons in
Sta. Barbara and Villasis towns supposedly suffering from such flesh-eating
disease.
Sison said his office
received phone calls from hotel owners after they got booking cancellations
from some groups that planned to visit Alaminos to see the world-famous Hundred
Islands.
In one hotel alone,
Sison said five groups cancelled their bookings because of the false
report.
The Philippine
Adventure Corp. that has scheduled some water sports activities in the Hundred
Islands also reportedly backed out.
There were inquiries,
too, on the distance between Alaminos and Sta. Barbara, Sison said.
Other towns though
kept mum about the issue because their places are not tourist destinations, he
added.
This, as
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the report about the
so-called “flesh-eating” disease in Pangasinan is unfair to people who have
suffered enough.
“This kind of news is
unfair to people who need hope at this time,” Villegas, president of the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said.
“At this point, what
the people need is hope. We don’t need something to be afraid of. We have
suffered enough,” he added.
In its Facebook
account, the Alaminos City government said Mayor Arthur Celeste acted swiftly
to dispel the report, saying the city “is most prone to receive major negative
blows, especially in our growing tourism industry.”
“Thank God the issue is
dying! No more viral status in the net, please help us to further cool it down.
Friends from the media didn’t stop airing the truth,” the city posted in its
Facebook page.
Also alarmed by the
report, Pangasinan third district Rep. Rose Marie Arenas, whose jurisdiction
includes Sta. Barbara, wrote Health Secretary Enrique Ona to seek his help.
“May I request your
immediate action to investigate this matter of public health and safety. I am
also requesting for immediate assistance by the concerned regional office of
the Department of Health to be extended to these victims,” Arenas said in her
letter to Ona.
Dr. Anna Maria Teresa
de Guzman, provincial health officer, said the report was “unfounded, not true,
and baseless.”
“There is no such
thing a
s a mysterious skin disease nor a flesh-eating bacteria spreading in
Pangasinan,” De Guzman said in a media briefing following the airing of the TV
report Monday night.
De Guzman said the
report, which went viral on social media, caused panic not only among locals
but also among Pangasinenses abroad, prompting Gov. Amado Espino Jr. to
instruct her and her team to swiftly investigate this issue.
In a report, the
state-run Philippine Information Agency quoted De Guzman as saying that the
Sta. Barbara patient is suffering from leprosy, a disease that causes skin
sore, while the one from Villasis had a severe case of psoriasis, which causes
peeling and red marks on the skin.
This, as Villegas said
that what the people should dois to ignore such report so as not to cause
further panic.
“I think we should not
give it too much attention. I think it is causing unnecessary panic to the
people, and it’s not what we need at this time,” he said.
“As a Catholic, we
should say that God loves us. Second, it is not the way of God to punish
people. The way of God is always compassion, mercy, and hope,” added Villegas.
Asked if the panic
caused by the news showed the weak faith of the people, he answered negatively.
“No. I think it’s not
the faith that is to be judged there. I think it’s the disposition of some
people to cause panic and to be sensational,” Villegas said.
“What can be explained
naturally by medical doctors and scientists we must not attribute to
supernatural causes that’s the basic principle. You have to exhaust all natural
means first before you attribute supernatural reasons for anything that
happens,” he added. -- Leslie Ann Aquino
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