Words by Vic S. Sevilla
Images by Jason Vicente Isaac / Cafeteria Studio
Outfits by Rajo Laurel & JC Buendia
Hairstyle & Makeup by Cris Soriano
Fashion Styling by Aida Concepcion
Shot on location at Palacio de Memoria

She stood there, under the massive chandelier of the Los Tamaraos Ballroom, wearing an evening confection in red by Rajo Laurel, and smiling unperturbed despite the early morning call time and a day that loomed ahead with a schedule crammed with meetings. In the elegant and stately ballroom of Palacio de Memoria, this wisp of a woman would have been easily dwarfed by the capacious hall filled with refined objets d’art, statuaries, and paintings enclosed in burnished frames from a bygone era.

But Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco has a presence that takes space. Her willowy frame is the stuff wannabe models would starve themselves for, and when she moves, she does so with palpable ease and grace. Despite her petite figure, she commands attention and draws the interest of those within her immediate surroundings. This rare combination of grace and gravitas is key as she treads the various complex paths of her new post: Secretary of the Department of Tourism.

An industry crippled by a pandemic and beset by a spate of natural calamities is most certainly riddled by daunting challenges and tricky impediments. Its troubled state of affairs demands a leader who can see through the problems and find logical solutions to benefit its stakeholders. Fortunately for the Philippine tourism industry, Secretary Frasco is a no-nonsense worker armed with experience and an ancestry deeply rooted in the workings of public service.

But to enter politics and establish a career in public service did not figure in her initial aspirations. She wanted to be an excellent lawyer.

The Reluctant Public Servant

“I never wanted to enter politics,” she says. “In fact, so determined was I to not enter politics that after I left for college and proceeded to law school, I specifically made the effort to stay in Manila to try to carve out a name for myself and built my own legal career outside of politics.”

After obtaining her Bachelor’s Degree in Legal Management from the Ateneo de Manila University, she went on to study Juris Doctor from the same university in 2006, took the bar examinations later, and passed. She then practiced international arbitration and commercial litigation in the Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc and Delos Angeles law firm. She also taught international law for several years at the University of San Carlos College of Law and Governance.

But public service would soon beckon when she met and ended up marrying a politician in 2009: the dynamic Vincent Franco “Duke” Frasco who, when he was just 26 years old, was elected as Mayor of Liloan with an overwhelming majority in the May 2007 elections.
As First Lady of Liloan, then Attorney Frasco instituted various socio-economic programs promoting the welfare of women, children, and senior citizens, endearing her to the people as a compassionate mother figure. Thus, when Mayor Frasco reached his last term in 2016, Liloan’s Barangay Captains and local constituents expressed their desire for continuity and asked his First Lady to run for Mayor.

Turning her back on a successful international legal career, she ultimately chose the path of public service and handily won the mayoralty race in Liloan in 2016. After being reelected to her second term in 2019, she was elected the first woman President of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines Cebu and the League’s National Vice President for the Visayas.

Under her stewardship, Liloan was awarded the Top Philippine Model Municipality in 2019 by The Manila Times. In the same year, Liloan received more recognition which included the Top Philippine Education Hub for its successful scholarship program that has supported over 10,000 scholars, Top Philippine Retirement Haven for programs promoting meaningful and joyful aging among senior citizens, and Top Philippine Wealth Center for business friendliness and proactive programs on infrastructure and economic development. In 2019 and 2020, the Department of Trade and Industry awarded Liloan as the Most Resilient Municipality in the Philippines.

In recognition of her innovative and transformational leadership, Secretary Frasco was awarded the prestigious Presidential Lingkod Bayan Regional Award by the Civil Service Commission in its 2021 search for outstanding government workers. In the same year, she was ranked number 1 mayor in an independent survey among all 116 municipal mayors in Region 7.

Throughout the challenges of the pandemic and the super typhoon that recently devastated Cebu, she has led Liloan’s recovery and resurgence towards becoming the LGU with the highest growth rate in Cebu. Under her leadership, Liloan has the distinction of being a four-time recipient of the highest audit rating given by the Commission on Audit, and it has received more than 40 good governance awards and citations from local and national award-giving bodies.

The once self-effacing lawyer quickly learned the ropes of dealing with public concerns and creating solutions for them. She was a hands-on local government leader who had a passion for working on the ground with her colleagues and constituents. When COVID-19 came, she worked tirelessly to ensure the safety and well-being of her constituents.
“Being a local chief executive during the time of the pandemic was extremely difficult in the sense that at the beginning when not much was known of the virus, it really fell onto us mayors to exert all efforts to, on the one hand, protect the lives of our people, and on the other hand, continue to ensure that their livelihoods were intact. And bearing the burden of that uncertainty, the everyday threat that was upon my people, was extremely difficult,” Secretary Frasco recalls.

And then, Odette happened. Just as Cebu and the affected provinces were beginning to recoup the losses they endured during the height of the pandemic, the super typhoon unleashed its full fury and wreaked havoc on Central Visayas.

“In Liloan, it ravaged over 90% of our coastal community and resulted in nearly 30,000 damaged houses. So, the challenge for me at the time was to ensure that my people would not lack for food, water, and shelter. And that became my singular focus at the time, you know, dealing with economic upheavals of the pandemic and at the same time, making sure that an already devastated people would not lose hope by making them know, feel, and see that government was there to extend its hand to help,” she reports.

Being in crisis mode every single day for the past several years, Secretary Frasco believes, has strengthened her as a leader. “It has allowed me to grow in terms of being pragmatic in finding the solutions to the challenges that my people faced, and proactive and innovative in terms of pivoting from yet another challenge that had come my way. And these tools that have been sharpened over the years, I believe, I bring to the department that is in itself still in a state of recovery,” she states.

Reshaping Philippine Tourism

To head the national agency that is tasked to formulate the policies and directions of an industry ravaged by the pandemic and natural calamities is by no means an enviable position. The undertaking of mapping out realistic, doable, and sustainable plans in the wake of a global crisis is not for the faint of heart, or one with an irresolute will.
Fortunately, Secretary Frasco is a decisive leader who has a clear-sighted view of the problems besetting the Philippine tourism industry. She fully recognizes the many concerns of tourism stakeholders and is already in the thick of mapping out solutions that will work in the long term.

“First, we will ensure the improvement of infrastructure and our main gateways. So that arriving at and moving across the Philippines will be as seamless as possible for our tourists and entice them to not only visit once but to keep coming back and to stay longer. Second, we will also ensure that we will introduce digitalization into the industry, making it convenient to book any accommodations and other services to go across our country, across our many islands.

“Third, we will also make sure that we introduce equalization into the promotion and development of our tourism destinations. We already have pre-identified key destinations that are known all over the world to which we aim to introduce improvements. But at the same time, the president’s vision is to spread economic prosperity across the country. And therefore, we are reaching out as far as possible, to as many destinations and local government units and regions as possible, so that the development and marketing of tourist destinations is not limited to well-known key destinations alone,” she intones.
The ability to give more product offerings to tourists coming over to the country, she believes, will substantially increase the Philippines’ tourism product portfolio. Apart from this, at the height of the pandemic when international ports of entry have prohibited the incoming flow of foreign tourists, government records show the resurgence of domestic tourism to carry the industry during the worst period of the crunch. Recognizing this, Secretary Frasco is intent on maximizing the full potential of domestic tourism by encouraging the establishment of regional tourism circuits and improving the method of travel from one island to another.

Secretary Frasco acknowledges President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s commitment to help prop up the tourism sector and equip it with all the incentives to become a top revenue earner for the country. “I think that the president’s vision for the resurgence of the tourism industry in the Philippines has given much hope for recovery from the ravages of the pandemic, and the various calamities that have come to our shores. And this hope reverberates across all sectors. With that, it is the president’s vision to transform the tourism industry into one of the major economic pillars of recovery, post-pandemic,” she says.

To reshape and improve tourism in the country, she admits, necessitates the introduction of institutional changes that would strengthen the industry. And her abundant experiences as a local government executive have given her valuable lessons and insights that would help her form the policies and effect the changes that would boost the entire tourism industry.

“I’ve seen the value of ensuring that we close the gap between the formulation of national policy and the implementation of these policies on the ground. More often than not, if national policy is crafted without the collaboration and consultation with local government units, it makes it very difficult to implement, and makes the solutions that are introduced not that responsive to the actual needs on the ground,” the Secretary opines.

It is for this reason that at the onset of her term, Secretary Frasco hit the ground running by embarking on listening tours across the country’s 16 regions. By paying attention to the voices of the many stakeholders of the tourism industry, she was able to personally hear and see the prevailing challenges assailing the industry. Armed with a storehouse of knowledge and factual information, she is bent on coming up with short-, medium-, and long-term solutions to these problems.

It’s More Than Fun in the Philippines

For years now, the catchphrase “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” has latched on to the imagination of Filipinos and foreign tourists alike—the promise of endless excitement and more than a thousand thrills is, after all, an enticing proposition. Consequently, it came as no surprise that when Secretary Frasco was reported to have been aiming to replace the popular slogan and come up with a new tourism mantra, the news raised a howl and was met with not a few unenthusiastic comments.

Secretary Frasco is taking the uproar in stride as she endeavors to put a more meaningful perspective into promoting and marketing the Philippines—one that authentically represents the bounty of attractions that the country can offer to tourists.

She explains: “All in all, to enable a position for our country that allows us to capitalize on our strengths, we aim to anchor all of our programs and projects in the Department of Tourism under the Filipino brand. According to the president, it’s high time that we highlight and herald the Filipino brand to the world. And that is what we intend to do to encourage in our people pride of place across our regions and to inculcate love of country so that we may be able to herald our culture to our tourists coming to the Philippines.”
She further states, “There’s no denying that when you come to the Philippines, you really do have fun. But at the same time, in life as in people, we must also evolve in accordance with the experiences that we’ve had in the past few years in honor of everything that we’ve been through, as well as the ability of our people to prevail over all of the difficulties that have come our way. The evolution is also in recognition of the global need to have more substantial, immersive, and meaningful experiences.”

But how can one showcase a unified Filipino brand and message to encapsulate more than 7,000 islands with diverse languages and cultures? The task, to say the least, is a mind-boggling order. Secretary Frasco, however, is not at all fazed.

She reasons, “Precisely it is our diversity that makes our identity so interesting, so colorful, so rich because we’ve just been through so much in terms of the movements in history. And true, this has resulted in a very diverse mix of cultures and identities across the 16 regions. Notwithstanding our differences, it’s really our commonalities that prevail, and these are the values that we all hold dear. Our love of family, our sense of community, our ability to be resilient notwithstanding all the difficulties that we have faced, the strength of spirit with which we have faced all of the pains that we have endured—all of these allow the commonality of our identity to come together.“

Recently, while attending an international tourism conference in Thailand, she came across an unusual request that highlighted the Filipino values of genuine concern and care for others. “The main request of the Thai government, through their Ministry, was for us to help them repopulate their accommodation sector—management level services—with the Filipino workers that had been repatriated out of Thailand because of the pandemic. It is this sense of identity anchored on our hospitality, our generosity, our innate joy as a people—these are qualities that all of us possess, notwithstanding the differences in our regional backgrounds.”

Public Service is in Her Blood

In the Gray Room of Palacio de Memoria, Secretary Frasco moved with great ease among the graceful European furniture and fine Chinese porcelain display. Wearing a capelet studded with pearls over a slender black column dress by couturier JC Buendia, she appeared as if from another era—a period in time when femininity was favored over pluck, and grace was cherished more than spunk.

Likewise, the soft-spoken way she articulates her thoughts is notably different from the way her mother, the distinguished Governor Gwen Garcia of Cebu, issues her statements: emphatic, unequivocal, and commanding. Does she feel any pressure to equal, if not surpass, her mother’s style of leadership and achievements?

“I’m very grateful to be the daughter of Gwen Garcia because I’ve learned so much from her over the years, and the sense of discipline that she has instilled in me I’ve carried with me all my life in everything that I do. But at the same time, by her encouragement, I have always also endeavored to be judged by my actions and my performance, and not only by my lineage.

“I don’t see it as a situation where there is always a potential for me to be overshadowed. But rather, I view my relationship with my mother as one that enhances my identity. And it is my intention to ensure that I honor the legacy that has been carried out since the time of my grandfather, (former governor and Deputy Speaker) Pabling Garcia; my grandmother, Judge Esperanza Garcia; and my mother. I have a full intention to honor that, and at the same time, try to chart my own path by working very hard,” she says.
From her feisty mother, Secretary Frasco says she learned to take an intense pride in being a Cebuano and a boundless love for Cebu. By Gov. Garcia’s example, she also realized the importance of hard work and to ensure that it is by her performance that she is ultimately judged by the people.

Public Service & Family Life: A Balancing Act

“What do you do to recharge?” I ask. “What’s that?” she quickly replies, then lets out a loud laugh. “That’s my answer!”

With so much on her plate at the moment, it’s hard to imagine how this workaholic finds time to bond with her four children. While her kids continue to stay and study in Cebu, she has to remain in Manila to perform her several duties, an essential consequence of her responsibilities especially at a time when tourism is in the process of rebuilding.
“It’s a struggle as it is for all working mothers, I’m sure. Yes, my four kids are in Cebu so it’s very difficult,” she concedes. “But also, you know, I’m really trying to find a way to still be present in their lives with technology. Of course, I talk to them multiple times a day and ensure that they still feel my presence as a mother by, let’s say, doing things like planning their week. I make sure that they have a schedule. I ensure that their meals are planned by me every week and I check up on them several times a day.”

It’s a work in progress and a continued challenge, she says with a half-smile. But Secretary Frasco is grateful for the support that she has been getting from her family that allows her to work to the best of her ability, while still performing her duties as a good wife and mother. And when she does find the rare time to relax, she paints. “I like to paint when I find the time. Any subject, really. I just find it very therapeutic to paint.”
On the career front, Secretary Frasco is intently focusing her sights on the demands of the present. She is upbeat at the prospect of effecting the institutional changes that her department will be introducing into the tourism industry with the intent of giving the country the opportunity to become a veritable tourism powerhouse in Asia.

“I never had any intention of joining national government because I had every intention of finishing out my last term and hoping to become the first city mayor of Liloan when we become a city. But with the president’s invitation to join his cabinet, I welcomed this opportunity with gratitude and optimism knowing that the president’s vision and support for the tourism industry will allow its resurgence in the years to come,” she ends.

It was nearly lunchtime when we finished our brief tête-à-tête. After the shoot, she emerged from the dressing room, still looking fresh and smiling—as if sitting for makeup, changing into five outfits, and posing in front of the camera under the glaring lights weren’t already exhausting tasks. But she breezed through it all with cheerfulness and admirable buoyancy—like the Philippine tourism’s best ambassador that she is.