MANILA -- Sen. Nancy Binay on Wednesday urged the Department of Tourism (DOT) to ditch its "Love the Philippines" slogan after it was received poorly by netizens and has now become a "laughing stock" that may damage the country's tourism potential.

• 'Beyond the fun': Why DOT changed More Fun in the Philippines' tourism slogan

Binay, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Tourism, said it would be unwise for DOT to proceed with the campaign now tarnished by the controversy involving its partner ad agency DDB Philippines.

"Dahil nga sa nangyari, headline na tayo sa buong mundo. Naging laughing stock na ang slogan, at masyado nang tinamaan ang campaign... The campaign has lost its redeeming value and has become unsalvageable—I hope the DOT is level-headed enough to accept this," Binay said.

"We don't want the slogan to become a national embarrassment and look like losers," she added.

The DOT is now in the process of terminating its contract with ad agency DDB Philippines, which it tapped to create the country's new tourism branding campaign, after netizens pointed out its use stock footage purporting to be scenes from the Philippines.

According to Binay, "tourism is a sensitive market [and] political unrest, negative media and people's perceptions influence travelers' decisions."

The senator recommended that the DOT bring back the "tried and tested" slogan "It's More Fun in the Philippines" used by the previous administrations.

"Again, huwag nang ipilit. Hindi masama ang magkamali. 'Love' was not meant to be. Let us all move on and just bring back the 'Fun' to the Philippines," Binay said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joel Villanueva also lamented how the campaign has grabbed negative attention from local and international media.

"It’s truly saddening that a project that is supposed to be used to promote the country has been filled with controversies - even getting the attention of international media... We need to move forward from this unfortunate incident and focus our efforts to restore traveler confidence and increase our domestic and foreign visitors," he said.

• 'Beyond the fun': Why DOT changed More Fun in the Philippines' tourism slogan

According to the senator, tourism efforts must be a "whole-of-government approach" and not merely dependent on a slogan.

"This includes reducing the cost of travel through the improvement of transport services, skills training for our workers in the tourism industry in anticipation of higher visitor demand, and assist in capacitating and assisting our Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the production of local goods and products," he said.

• DOT employees back Tourism chief Frasco amid fiasco

The DOT has yet to announce if they will continue to use the "Love the Philippines" slogan after severing ties with DDB Philippines.

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