In between back-to-back engagements during her stay in Cebu, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco paid a visit to Liloan, where she treated local officials of the Municipality to lunch.
Mayor Aljew Fernando Frasco, Vice Mayor Darwin Apas, municipal councilors, department managers, and barangay captains were all smiles in welcoming back Frasco to Liloan, who prior to becoming DOT Secretary, served as the town’s mayor for three terms.
In her address to her fellow Liloanons and workers in the government, the tourism chief recounted how Liloan, awarded Top Model Municipality in the Philippines during her tenure through the burning passion of its officials and employees, was able to achieve great heights and withstand the difficulties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, super typhoon Odette and the various calamities that struck the country.
“You know it’s been quite a journey. I left Liloan and went on to accept the President’s challenge to lead the Department of Tourism. The path has not been entirely easy, quite difficult in fact and very challenging. But while I may have left Liloan, Liloan has never left me,” the tourism head shared.
“While Mayor Aljew said that I set the bar high, the reality is that it is, it has been, the lessons in governance that I have learned in Liloan that have allowed me to set my own bar at the Department of Tourism.”
“And while Mayor Aljew said that I set the bar high, the reality is that it is, it has been, the lessons in governance that I have learned in Liloan that have allowed me to set my own bar at the Department of Tourism,” she added.
“Thank you for teaching me to put love in everything that I do, and to accept nothing less than excellence if it is in the service of the Filipino people.”
As Frasco echoed the DOT’s efforts to fulfill the vision of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for tourism to become a socioeconomic tool for development that will bring benefits to all to Filipinos and help them in times of crises, she thanked the officials present saying: “Thank you for teaching me to put love in everything that I do, and to accept nothing less than excellence if it is in the service of the Filipino people.”
Officials of the DOT including Undersecretary Shahlimar Hofer Tamano, OIC-Undersecretary Verna Buensuceso, Director Judilyn Quiachon, and Executive Assistant Alven Talisic joined Frasco in her heartwarming “homecoming” to Liloan.
