cebuanas.com

"most of the foreigners are middle-aged men with young women hanging on to their arms."

that is part of the preface by lonely planet when describing cebu city as a tourist destination. for USD 299 dollars "yanski" will meet you at the airport, and for 7 days, have a personal assistant arrange for 5 ladies to be brought up to your hotel for a get to know each other session. oh, they also provide you with a cell phone.

if you're on a quick turnaround flight, USD 99 will have someone meet you at the airport and arrange for 5 ladies to be brought up to your hotel room for a "get to know each other session". and yeah, the cell phone comes along as well. i seriously doubt that "get to know each other session" will last long before someone starts to strip, and that is definitely another type of conversation i don't want to go into.

and if you probably ask for it, the "escort" can also provide you with viagra supply.

but like any other "promotion" there must be some hidden costs to this "package". take note that they only "meet" you in the airport which means that you still have to arrange and pay for transport to the city. they can book you in a hotel for the first night but you still have to pay for that and succeeding nights. for any extra curricular activity, your "escort" can arrange that for you at your expense. meeting the ladies is set at 5 per day, but any plans of taking out any of the ladies will mean you have to pay for everything, including the "escort" and if you really got a bad deal, that will include the nanay (mom), tatay (dad), igsoon (siblings), kaagaw (cousins), tiyo (uncles), tiya (aunties) ug anak (kid) + neighboring town and cities. in short, be ready to pay for a fiesta.

they conveniently provide you with a mobile phone - but beware, you have to pay for the pre-paid load and when you do find that "special" someone, you also have to do pasa-load (pass a load) to their nanay, tatay, igsoon.. you get the picture.

i was under the false impression that ace durano (secretary, department of tourism) is doing a splendid job in promoting Cebu as the tourist hub of the Philippines, but i guess the reason why lonely planet mentioned semi-retired viagra dependent middle aged men flocking (and F*ing)to cebu is because of cebuanas.com

this is obviously part of the sex tourism industry that contributes to Cebu ranked as part of the Top 5 Sex Tourism Destination for prostitution. more disturbingly, cebu is also cited as a destination for child prostitution.

i cringed when i opened up the website as it blatantly sold cebuana women as part of a singles dating portal to foreigners. no matter how you look at it, the operation crossed the border to online prostitution. i call cebu as my adopted province and i am terribly disturbed by this item and i have to ask that tough question as to what our local government is doing to acknowledge and address this problem.

no wonder we get news about a group of japanese nationals filming pornography in the olango bird sanctuary. i don't think i want to see THAT KIND of bird.

as i sit here in a coffee shop getting my thoughts out to the whole wide world, i counted 15 foreigners fitting the category i mentioned earlier (i didn't count the koreans as they are here studying - i certainly hope so). almost all of them have a young woman by their side, and i am definitely sure they're not family. the colors don't match.

no wonder a lot of my filipina friends are wary of being seen beside a foreign looking man because of stereotypes fuelled by this sort of activity. someone has got to do something about cebuanas.com

by the way, if you plan to keep the mobile phone, you probably have to pay for that too.