Malacañang in state of denial over sex tourism — Cayetano 09/26/2011

Malacañang in state of denial over sex tourism — Cayetano

09/26/2011
The Aquino administration had chosen to be in a state of denial in questioning the remarks made recently by United States Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. that up to “40 percent” of foreign male tourists go to the country primarily for sexual adventure, Sen. Pia Cayetano said yesterday as she took Malacañang and newly appointed Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez to task for not confronting the real issue on the existence of sex tourism in the country.

“The Palace and Jimenez appear to be in a state of denial regarding the existence and continued proliferation of sex tourism in our country. The remark made by Ambassador Thomas that up to 40 percent of male foreign tourists come here primarily for sex was met by an avalanche of denials from the government,” Cayetano, chairman of the Senate committee on youth, women and family relations, said.

“Instead of directly addressing the issue, Deputy Presidential Spokesman Abigail Valte and Jimenez dwelt on questioning the accuracy of the ambassador’s statistics. But really, may we ask, what has the government been doing to address these problems?” she asked..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110926hed3.html