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A broader look at today’s business Sunday, April 12, 2026 Vol. 21 No. 180
TOURISM TORCH PASSED, FINALLY www.businessmirror.com.ph
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US and Iran: A brief history of how decades of mistrust and bad blood led to open warfare
Angara-Mathay inherits tourism sector strained by high travel costs, infrastructure gaps
THE aerial view of Hundred Islands National Park serves as a visual backdrop to the transition in tourism leadership, as Bernadita “Dita” Angara-Mathay assumes the helm of the Department of Tourism amid mounting external pressures. Her appointment comes at a time when the agency must navigate fuel-driven airfare increases, tight promotional budgets, and intensifying regional competition for long-haul travelers, even as flagship destinations like Hundred Islands continue to symbolize the country’s untapped tourism potential. The challenge for the new leadership lies in translating such globally competitive natural assets into stronger arrival numbers and higher-value tourism, while coordinating across agencies and local governments to address long-standing gaps in infrastructure, accessibility, and market positioning. ALEXEY KORNYLYEV | DREAMSTIME.COM
By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo
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Special to the BusinessMirror
S the new Tourism Secretary, Bernadita “Dita” Angara-Mathay faces the incredible task of encouraging more foreign tourists to visit the Philippines, at a time when the Middle East conflict has resulted in higher jet fuel prices—something that will certainly affect the country’s ability to attract higher-spending, long-haul tourists. Angara-Mathay’s appointment to the DOT was officially announced on Friday morning by the Presidential Communications Office (PCO). She is a “distant cousin” of Education Secretary Sonny Angara, according to a source in his office. The “seasoned public servant,” as she is described by PCO, is married to Robbie Mathay, former president of the Aurora Economic and Free Port Authority. Armed with a P1-billion branding budget under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) this year, the Department of Tourism’s marketing efforts, however, will still be limited. Even if added to the separate P1.37 billion allocation to DOT’s marketing arm, the Tourism Promotions Board, the country’s promotions budget still pales in comparison to the Philippines’s neigbors in Asean. Even Vietnam has a tourism promotions budget of $148 million (P8.8 billion). Under the GAA, the DOT is committed to attract 6.7 million international tourists this year. Inbound visitors last year reached 5.87 million, 1.34 percent less year on year, and accounted for mostly by Philippine passport holders permanently residing abroad. (See, “Tourist arrivals barely hit 6M, still below prepandemic break,” in the BusinessMirror.) DOT’s marketing efforts will also be challenged not just by an increase in airfares, but higher hotel rates. A common complaint
of many Filipinos is that it is 2030 percent cheaper to vacation abroad than to frolic in the country’s white beaches, such that DOT data showed 7.65 million Filipinos traveled abroad in 2025, exceeding foreign visitor arrivals. While the energy crisis may cramp the Filipinos’s penchant to travel abroad and to local destinations, other challenges remain. (See, “PHL tourism faces headwinds as fuel prices surge, flights cut,” in the BusinessMirror, March 29, 2026.)
Accolades yes, but where are the tourists?
THERE is certainly no dearth in natural beauty that the Philippines can offer tourists. Among the honors it has received were from the World Travel Awards as Asia’s Leading Beach Destination, Leading Dive Destination, and Leading Island Destination. The white beach in Boracay Island even topped Condé Nast Travellers’ list of “Best Beaches in the World for Sunbathing, Surfing, and Doing Absolutely Nothing.” Despite these honors, the Philippines doesn’t attract as many foreign visitors as it should. Associate Economist Zhao (Bella) Guo of ABN-AMRO in December said the Philippines has to address “long-standing infrastructure gaps that limit accessibility, competitiveness, and visitor experience. Investments in airports, seaports, and road networks are essential to
AN anti-American and anti-Israel propaganda mural painted on a street in Tehran, Iran, outside the former U.S. Embassy reflects the deep-rooted tensions between Washington and Tehran. JACKMALIPAN | DREAMSTIME.COM
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ITH US bombs raining down on Iran and Tehran’s leaders responding by hitting targets across the Persian Gulf and restricting transit through the Strait of Hormuz, it is fair to suggest that the present moment represents a low in relations between the two countries. But the bad blood isn’t new: The US and Iran have been in conflict for decades—at least since the US helped overthrow a democracyminded prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, in August 1953. The US then supported the long, repressive reign of the Shah of Iran, whose security services brutalized Iranian citizens for decades. The two countries have been particularly hostile to each other since Iranian students took over the
US Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, resulting in economic sanctions and the severing of formal diplomatic relations between the nations. Since 1984, the US State Department has listed Iran as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” alleging the Iranian government provides terrorists with training, money and weapons. Some of the major events in US-Iran relations highlight the differences between the nations’ views, but others arguably presented real opportunities for reconciliation.
1953: US overthrows Mossadegh
In 1951, the Iranian Parliament chose a new prime minister, Mossadegh, who then led lawmakers to vote in Continued on A2
New Tourism Secretary Bernadita “Dita” Angara-Mathay faces a high-stakes mandate to revive Philippine tourism amid rising fuel costs, global uncertainty, and persistent infrastructure gaps, as stakeholders call for stronger coordination, sharper marketing, and faster reforms to boost visitor arrivals.
improving access across islands, increasing visitor flows, and dispersing tourism benefits more evenly.” Unfortunately for Angara-Mathay, most of these shortcomings are not under the DOT’s purview, but that of the Departments of Transportation, Public Works and Highways, and the Interior and Local Government. The latter, specifically, can push provincial and municipal government leaders to simplify access from airports to local tourist destinations, reduce unnecessary fees imposed on visitors or tourism businesses, and give business permits and licenses only to DOT-accredited establishments. For another, the DOT’s ability to help local governments improve their stature as desirable tourism destinations also faces a stumbling block as lawmakers — on orders of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. — are in the process of removing the travel tax, which funds the operations of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza), a government-owned and -controlled corporation over-
seen by the agency. Travel taxes have funded the provision of hyperbaric chambers in many of the country’s leading dive destinations; the maintenance of Unesco World Heritage sites like the Ifugao Rice Terraces and St. Paul Subterranean River, water rehabilitation efforts in Boracay and future water projects in Coron and El Nido; and the ability of Tieza to attract more tourism investments, a role recently assigned to the government firm due to reforms in the country’s tax laws. (See, “Tourism comeptitiveness at risk in travel tax junking,” in the BusinessMirror, Feb. 23, 2026.)
High praise from ex-bosses
ASIDE from her former bosses and colleagues at the Department of Trade and Industry, not much is known about Angara-Mathay, who has no social media footprint except for the occasional photo in official functions. “She is excellent,” assures former Trade Secretary Manuel Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 59.5020 n JAPAN 0.3743 n UK 79.9588 n HK 7.5958 n CHINA 8.7113 n SINGAPORE 46.7783 n AUSTRALIA 42.1334 n EU 69.6352 n KOREA 0.0403 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.8562 Source: BSP (April 10, 2026)