NINOY AQUINO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Philippine Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Franco was scheduled to fly out of NAIA on Tuesday night. It was to be the start of her family leave from DOT.

Alas, she was “detained” for at least a couple of hours by Immigration authorities who were looking for her college diploma, NBI clearance, and proof of income.

One immigration officer was looking for money in her carry-on bag, hoping to find millions of pesos that DOT was to have paid to DDB, the ad agency that concocted the slogan “Love The Philippines” and produced the botched video that featured tourism sites abroad. (Frasco has insisted that not a single peso was paid to DDB).

When the interrogation was completed, the United Airlines plane bound for San Francisco had already closed the doors, and so Frasco was offloaded.

Moral of the story: tourism promotion is not all about slogans and videos. Rather, it is fixing airport woes like passenger offloading which has plagued the country’s main airport.