“THE KOREAN INVASION” as some derisively call it – is huge. We did some math and now understand why such an “invasion” has resulted in a gargantuan business opportunity that many will die for.

Statistics from the Bohol Provincial Tourism Office show that in 2023, Bohol welcomed 1,010,248 visitors of which 333,381 were foreigners (33%) and 140,000 were Koreans (42% of foreigners). Another set of statistics indicates that Koreans in 2023 (on average) stayed in the country for 11.6 nights and spent P6,906.51 a day or P80,115. 00 during their entire stay.

Computing that figure of 140,020 Korean heads’ expenditures results in a stupendous contribution of P11.2 billion a year to the Bohol economy, representing 6.5% of the Bohol economy’s P171 billion value for 2023. That’s no peanuts, Tarzan.

What do we have? If one goes to Panglao these days, one will feel like one has landed in South Korea itself. One seldom sees any Pinoys in many restaurants or resorts; it’s like 80% are Koreans. They enter through the 6 to 8 direct daily flights from Incheon and Seoul to Bohol Panglao International Airport through Jeju Air, Jin Air, Air Busan, and Air Seoul.

While that airport may not look as grandiose as true-blue international airports, it definitely can carry more flights than the decrepit, old city airport. It even has a multi-year P7-Billion expansion in the medium-term plan and will perfectly time with the entry of the professional Aboitiz group which is no stranger to airport management. There.

Bohol is targeting 1.4 million tourist arrivals by December 2024 a tremendous 463% rise from five years ago at a pitiful 177,341 guests only in pre-Covid 2020. And there is no question that the Koreans have been a significant factor in this now accounting for about 80% of foreign tourists here.

That kind of Korean tourist numbers and the 2023 P11 billion estimated gross receipts emanating from them is like an apple in the Garden of Eden. Luscious as it is, it is coveted by many- not less by the Koreans themselves who see good money when they see one. For every yin, there is a yang- a downside to every upside, however.

For protecting our tourist gems and for earning to be the only Global Geosite in the nation- what have we gotten in return? It seems the Koreans cannot resist -using dummies and legitimate marriages with Boholano folks- to attempt to corner a significant portion of this low-hanging economic fruit.

The good news is that the latest figures indicate there are an estimated 1,200 Koreans who land in Bohol every single day. Consider how many they can be together if they stay true to an average of 11.6 nights stay in the country. It can be a whole town, mind you.

The sad refrain (bad news) is that this same teeming tourist -and the business they bring- is slowly being cornered by Koreans themselves. They are met by Korean tour operators, checked in into Korean-owned hotels and resorts, dine in Korean-owned restaurants, and view the Chocolate Hills and other tourist destinations using their own transportation mode. One gets drowned by a blitz of neon-lighted Korean names in restaurants in Panglao these days-making one feel as if he is a stranger in a Korean City. How much is enough?

On a nation-to-nation basis, of course, we are aware that a Korean will always have a bigger capital resource than a Filipino. A first-world vs. a third world country. That’s the sad reality, Watson. Can we compete?

There are a hundred ways to circumvent our laws barring foreigners from controlling certain types of businesses and owning real estate. Circumvention is not illegal as tax avoidance is not tax evasion, as our smart conniving lawyers know like the palm of their hands.

But, through all that, we will stop being courteous once the Koreans are suspected of ruining our environment through the abuse of our natural resources. The case in point is Punlad Island  (Virgin Island) which has been ordered closed for six months because of the vandalization by suspected Korean citizens aided by their kind or in collaboration with unscrupulous Filipino divers.

They paid a fee to the Korean tourist guides for engraving their Korean names on the 11-meter corals-making money at the expense of our environment. That’s a criminal act against our environment. We just won one big fight against the reclamation projects and the abuse of the Chocolate Hills – are we going to look the other way on this one? A furious Governor Aris Aumentado has offered P200,000 for those who can identify these environmental busters. Rightly, so.

Corals house 25% of marine life as their habitat, protect our coastlines from storms and erosion, and “is the core for the formation of other ecosystems”. We can allow their destruction- especially if done by foreigners- at our own peril.

This mounting “Korean invasion” is getting worse before it gets better. And some intolerable limits can be reached and we hope that the dreaded disease of anti-race called Xenophobia does not happen here. Extreme xenophobia is never good. Not when the Americans attacked Asians in the USA at the height of the Covid 19, blaming them for the disease. When Hitler murdered millions of Jews in World War II. When the Ku Klux Clan attack black families. These are inherently bad. Unchristian.

Before this extremism occurs here against the “Korean invasion” – there should be constant dialogue between the burgeoning Korean community here and Boholanos so that each can feel part of the growth and development of the province. Many of the resources they are exploiting -aided by our fragile laws- are our birthrights. Boholanos cannot become foreigners in their own land.

Our natural resources are tied by an invisible umbilical cord to our people- that cannot be exploited for purely material gain at the tremendous expense of our own people. Good if the Korean businessmen spent their income here or re-invested here again- what if they are all remitted to Korea? Who is the loser?

Yes, we do thank the Koreans for revving up the economy. But the “invasion” must be calibrated to protect the well-being of their hosts who welcomed them here to enjoy our resources and hospitality.

Boholanos fighting Koreans here will end up with both as the losers. Let’s start to dialogue now and put sense, fairness, and order into the matter. Let not greed prevail.

A STORY OF TWO WOMEN

ONE CANNOT HELP the analogy. Filipino citizen Leila de Lima was imprisoned for almost 7 years- for charges that were later reversed by the courts- and confined to her room in Camp Crame. Deprived of aircon, laptops, and cell phones. At one point she was almost hostage to death by an escapee.

She spent lonely nights alone- and her own mother (who was sick in Bicol) was never told of her condition. Leila spent endless days- watching the sun and then the moon and the stars that she eventually befriended and fed all the stray cats nearby- and adopted them all when she was free.

De Lima recounted all these days- aided only by her undying faith in the Lord and Lady Justice- as she celebrated recently her first birthday as a free woman at (significantly) in the church at the EDSA shrine- the very citadel of the Filipinos’ sweet victory of freedom in 1986. She was no longer in tears.

To think she is a former senator, justice secretary, and Commission of Human Rights chair.

The idea of De Lima in chains rankles many today in the way when a “fugitive” of the law – the fake  Bamban mayor and suspected Chinese national Alice Guo -was welcomed by private jet- into the country by a smiling DILG Benhur Abalos and PNP Chief General Rommel Francisco Marbil. BBM dismissed the picture as” we are a country of selfies. There is nothing to it.”

Not when this POGO Queen could lead to the exposure of one the biggest criminal operations in this country including billions of money laundering, human trafficking, torture, illegal detention, millions of money bribery, and even the drug trade marred by accusations of EJKs. And may yet indict the other Philippine officials involved in the various horrible violations of the law.

Abalos is a good man- but it was not his brightest decision to appear affable to a fugitive of the law. Of course, he probably had in mind that he would appear like a hero- in bringing physically the crook in designer clothes back to the Philippines. But people are cynical since he is a shoo-in as a candidate for senator next year. It was a “faux pas”- PR-wise.

There was no sign of remorse on the part of Alice in Wonderland- still living in her fantasy world- perhaps- that everything in this country is for sale and that a jail term is farthest from her worst nightmares.

The contrast in the De Lima and Guo episodes continues to grind at the innards of even ordinary folks who can tell the basics of what is right and wrong. What are good manners and right conduct. This stinks. 

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