Search on for new director

REGION 7 will have a new tourism chief, Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo announced Friday.

“We are going to have a new regional director. But as of the moment, what we have is the officer-incharge. Actually, everyone was required to tender their resignation, so for Cebu, the regional director has already resigned and the next in line will take her place,” Teo told reporters. “We will just have to wait for the replacement.”

She clarified, though, that the resignation has to be accepted by President Rodrigo Duterte before they can start looking for a replacement.

Teo has no person in mind yet to replace Department of Tourism (DOT) 7 Director Rowena Montecillo but her top two qualifications are that the new regional director should come from Cebu and must have expertise in marketing.

Montecillo has already tendered her courtesy resignation in response to Memorandum Circular No. 4, signed and released last Aug. 22.

In that memo, President Duterte directed all presidential appointees to tender their unqualified courtesy resignations.

Several tourism organizations in Central Visayas have endorsed the re-appointment of Montecillo as the DOT 7 chief.

Cebu Associations of Rent-A-Car Companies, Bohol Island Tour Guides Association of the Philippines Inc., Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Tourist Transport Operations in Cebu, and Tourism Operators Unite in Region 7 (Tours 7), and Cebu Association of Tour Guides Inc. sent separate endorsement letters addressed to Tourism Secretary Teo last month.

“Being a former head of the accreditation sector, plus, her experience in running the office, we believe that retaining her would be more beneficial to our region. Most of all, we could attest to the fact that her office is a corruption-free agency and is being operated in a very professional manner,” said the Cebu Associations of Rent-A-Car Companies, in a separate letter.