The Senate has paid tribute to the late Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez by adopting a resolution honoring him for his contributions to tourism, advertising and communications. Jimenez passed away last April 27 at the age of 64.
Senate Resolution No. 399 was adopted in consideration with Senate Resolution No. 402. The resolutions were introduced by Senators Kiko Pangilinan and Leila De Lima respectively.
“Our love ones keep us in check.”
According to Pangilinan, Jimenez had “many golden nuggets of wisdom,” but what he remembered most was the latter telling him that “our love ones keep us in check”. The veteran legislator said Jimenez’ golden lessons were always anchored in democracy and the voices of the small people.
“During the social media boom after 2010, particularly of micro-blogging site twitter, the word fun and the Philippines were frequently seen twitted together. Sec. Mon took advantage of this social media insight and eight years ago, on January 6, 2012, the ‘It’s more fun in the Philippines’ tourism campaign was launched. After a while, the slogan became a meme and thousands of Filipinos started using it in various media platform,” Pangilinaan said.
The senator said the popular slogan remains a reminder of what can be achieved with creativity and foresight, bringing unprecedented achievements for the tourism industry, almost doubling tourism arrivals and revenues during Jimenez term as the secretary of the Department of Tourism (DOT) and raising global awareness for the Philippines as a top tourism destination.
“The success of his tenure as tourism chief strengthened values that contribute greatly to nation-building, deepening our people’s sense of national pride.”
“Such achievements redounded to the economic well-being of countless Filipinos, creating jobs and businesses, and expanding the horizon of opportunity for many of our countrymen. The success of his tenure as tourism chief strengthened values that contribute greatly to nation-building, deepening our people’s sense of national pride,” he said.
Pangilinan said Jimenez was recognized not only his formidable talents as a communicator but his integrity and incorruptibility, humility, fairness, and love of country.
For her part, De Lima said the country’s tourism competitiveness rose by 20 places from 94th in 2011 to 74th in 2015 under Jimenez’s guidance. The legislator said Jimenez was also a key contributor to tourism policies that helped shaped the National Tourism Development Program (NTDP) for 2016 to 2022.
“The World Bank also praised Sec. Jimenez by stating that he was able to transform the DOT into a primary selling unit whose main goal is not only to improve statistics but to ensure that every tourism success would include and benefit as many Filipinos as possible,” the lawmaker concluded.