Diplomats invited to see Corregidor

Foreign diplomats are encouraged to see Corregidor’s monuments to a historic battle, even if the island has a garbage problem.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday denied that foreign diplomats were temporarily banned from visiting Corregidor island due to the "terror" of garbage.

The DFA regularly escorts diplomats to the island to see for themselves the ruins of war, including big mounted guns that have been preserved on the island.

DFA assistant secretary for protocol office Jose Avito Zaide said the government merely admitted the problem of garbage in Corregidor but also recognized the success of a non-government organization in cleaning up the area.

Zaide was earlier quoted as saying foreign diplomats would have to be discouraged or prohibited to visit Corregidor while the clean-up was going on since it would reflect a negative image of the country.

"We Filipino diplomats here and abroad promote tourism. We are the number one tourism men of the country and it is certainly neither my nor the DFA’s policy to ban or discourage tourists from visiting a historic place like Corregidor," he said.

Zaide said government officials also discussed other means to save the island from being damaged by uncollected garbage.

He added that the DFA scheduled Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who is arriving tonight, to visit Corregidor but his tight schedule would not allow him.

"During our discussions, we did not have any negative conclusions about the place. Perhaps it is just the writer’s imaginative interpretation," Zaide said.

He reportedly made the remark about the ban when he asked the Department of the Interior and Local Government to help in the clean-up of the island, where US and Philippine soldiers made their last stand against invading Japanese Imperial Army forces in 1942.

The strategic location of Corregidor made it a formidable fortress that took several months for the Japanese to capture.

Zaide said Corregidor is one tourist spot that is easy to promote because of its accessibility, being less than an hour by fast ferry from Manila.