GMA: Travel warnings exaggerated

Perceptions of security risks in the country that have led several governments to issue advisories against travel to the Philippines are grossly exaggerated, President Arroyo said yesterday.

"Our people go on with their day-to-day lives in peaceful and lawful interaction and commerce, despite the many anxieties on their minds," she said. "We are not an area of random, irrational violence."

"The basis of travel advisories adverse to the Philippines is not valid," Mrs. Arroyo said in a statement, reacting to recent advisories by the United States, Australia, Canada, Britain and New Zealand.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) also called on its counterparts in other countries to be fair in issuing travel advisories on the Philippines.

The President said she did not blame anyone for the perception of instability in the Philippines due to renewed terror threats, but said the perceptions "are exaggerated and do not merit the judgment that our country is generally unsafe."

On Thursday, Canada, New Zealand and Britain asked their citizens not to travel to parts of the Philippines, particularly the south, where kidnappings, bombings and armed attacks have occurred.

The advisories follow similar warnings by the US and Australia. The US State Department last week mentioned a July 14 jailbreak by international terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi and two members of the Abu Sayyaf. The other countries did not refer to the incident in their advisories.

While the President conceded that such threats of terrorism should not be ignored, she said all Philippine law enforcement authorities are on their toes to prevent terrorist acts.

DFA spokeswoman Julia Heidemann said that several of the bombing incidents that occurred in the southern Philippines were not political in nature but simply criminal acts.

"The advisories that show the whole country is unsafe are unfair. Other parts of the country are not that bad," she said.

Heidemann added that the DFA is constantly in touch with its counterparts abroad and the negative advisories are being addressed diplomatically.

She said there is no move on the part of the DFA to protest the advisories, since it could not prevent other countries from warning their citizens.

She earlier said that she is not that concerned by the advisories since "these can’t prevent people from going if they really want to."

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople, however, was quoted the other day as saying that Al-Ghozi will be captured within the week. He identified Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane as his source for the information.

Meanwhile, Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon shrugged off the latest travel advisory from New Zealand, which has a negligible number of tourist arrivals in the Philippines.

"Our country is beautiful. Our country is safe," he told The STAR. "In spite of these travel advisories, just give me more money for promotions and I can bring in more travelers here."

Gordon was at the Palace yesterday, one of the three Cabinet members who reported their department’s respective accomplishments prior to the President’s State of the Nation Address to Congress on Monday.

He reported that Philippine tourism grew despite the lingering effects of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, the bombing in Bali, Indonesia and "internal terrorism and peace and order crises."

Though foreign tourist arrivals went down during the first six months of 2003 due to these factors, Gordon said this was more than offset by the large increase in domestic tourism receipts due to the "holiday economics" instituted by the President.

"Holiday economics" refers to the movement of official holidays occurring in the middle of the week to either Monday or Friday, enabling Filipino families to enjoy longer weekends out of town or on package tours.

Gordon admitted that for the first six months of the year, there was a significant decline in the number of tourists arriving from the major tourist markets of US, Australia, and Japan.

The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) added to the woes of the tourism industry in the Philippines.

Gordon said that due to SARS, the number of tourists from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore went down during the first semester of 2003.

He also conceded that the threat posed by Al-Ghozi remaining at large will remain a concern for foreign tourists.

Gordon said his department will work harder for the remainder of the year to make up for the decline in tourist arrivals. — With AP report