COA report on Suroy-suroy

THE Commission on Audit (COA) report highlighting supposed deficiencies in the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo is hardly surprising. That is the nature of the COA’s mandate: to find fault or “exceptions.”

COA, for example, noted that while the operating costs and related expenses incurred in last year’s Suroy-Suroy reached P11.45 million, the income from the activity amounted only to P3.79 million. The disparity is indeed enormous. Given the bleak financial picture, any ordinary businessman will have to cut costs or raise revenues or close down the business.

But the province isn’t any ordinary businessman and Suroy-Suroy isn’t any ordinary business enterprise. If the provincial government were a brothel operator, the COA would be right in computing the direct revenues derived from the “rentals” for the girls vis-à-vis operating expenses such as the girls’ commissions, the cost of their weekly hygiene examination and the protection money that have to be paid to the police, among others.

In the case of the Suroy-Suroy, however, there are incremental benefits that are not capable of immediate pecuniary estimation. For example, did the COA ever consider the money that the tourists had pumped into the economy of the towns included in the tour?

But we’re only concerned with how much money was earned by the government in relation to how much it spent for a particular activity, the COA will probably explain. This is exactly what makes their report terribly one-sided. The SuroySuroy is not about selling tickets to tourists for a particular tour; it is about creating momentum for a tourism program.

I am not saying that the management of the Suroy-Suroy was perfect. In fact, I couldn’t agree more with the COA’s call for more prudence in spending for the tours. I am just worried that critics of the activity might use the COA report to move for the abolition of the Suroy-Suroy. That would be a setback to the promotion of tourism in Cebu.

The last time we talked, Vice Governor-elect Agnes Magpale said she was hoping that she would get the chairmanship of the Provincial Board’s committee on tourism. She also indicated that she wants to continue with the Suroy-Suroy, subject to reforms aimed at ensuring that tourists get value for their money and easing the financial burden on the host towns.

In that sense, the province may yet still find use for the COA report.

*** When I came to Cebu in the late ‘60s and lived in the old Parian district, there was a small plaza across the fire station where games were played nightly. One of those games was the “lipat-lipat” where you bet on which soft drinks crown had the seed underneath it. By the time my sister found out, I had I lost much of my weekly P1 allowance to the game.

I refer to my experience as “nakapusta sa tansan nga way liso.” City Hall employees, who did not support Mayor Mike Rama in the last elections, will soon become familiar with it, I am afraid.

Mike announced recently that he will no longer renew the contracts of casual workers who campaigned against him. Tough luck for those who thought that Rama was like them: a casual mayor good for only three years. They have to pay the price.

In the old days, they used to say that to the victor belong the spoils. Now, it is “weather-weather lang.” However you say it, the message is clear for those who beat on the wrong tansan: It’s time to pack your bags.