TOPCOP

If the government is fielding tourist cops, it should not be a half-baked effort, and it should be better conceptualized and executed than the tourism marketing logo.

The government should also see to it that the word gets out – that the Philippines is seriously moving to keep its guests safe and make their stay in the country enjoyable.

It would be nice to see cops who are neat and trim, if not the ideal of the recruiters for TOPCOP, or Tourist-Oriented Police for Community Order and Protection: individuals who are 1.7 meters tall (5’8”) and with an “athletic” build (by which they probably mean flat abs instead of beer bellies).

But more than looks, the tourist police should be able to do the job, which is to provide the necessary assistance to the country’s guests – whether in going after muggers or making sense of a street map.

Being victimized by thieves while sightseeing is a more common concern for prospective travelers than being hit by a terrorist bomb. Another concern is the ease of getting around on one’s own using the mass transport system. Are there enough translations for foreigners? Are local cab drivers honest and efficient?

In the crowded subways of Seoul, for example, Korean signs have English translations. For foreigners who still get confused, especially about the refund system for recycling fare cards, there are people in uniform who are fielded throughout the subway system to provide assistance. The fare is affordable: a minimum of less than $1.

Personal safety is a concern for travelers, anywhere in the world. Petty crime is a problem everywhere, although truly less so in certain countries such as Singapore and Switzerland.

When even Sweden has been hit by a terrorist attack, people won’t scratch out a country from their travel plans chiefly because of personal security concerns.

Other factors come into play in planning tourist itineraries.

Last year, for example, 400,000 Australians visited Bali, even if 88 of their compatriots died on the Indonesian resort island in the 2002 terrorist attack. The Philippines had only about 90,000 Australian visitors in 2009.

This, of course, could be because Bali is situated much closer to Australia than the Philippines. But it could also be because the island has a distinctive culture.

The same can be said of Thailand, where bomb attacks in the capital and political turbulence have not deterred tourists as much as locals feared. My mother returned recently from a weekend in Bangkok, green with envy over the crush of foreign tourists everywhere. At the Floating Market, she said their boat simply floated, unable to go anywhere, because there were too many foreign visitors even at night.

Thai culture, like Balinese art and architecture, is one of Asia’s most distinctive. That uniqueness can be irresistible to travelers, even when they are worried about personal safety.

The Philippine brand, on the other hand, is a work in progress. We have to work harder at attracting visitors, and we have to confront their concerns. One of the biggest is criminality.

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A well-traveled Asian expatriate, relatively new in this country, told me recently that he was struck by one particular feature of Philippine life: the proliferation of gated villages.

Nowhere in the many countries he has visited, he said, has he seen so many gated enclaves where only residents – generally the affluent – and their guests can enter.

In the United States where he lived for several years, he noted that even the homes of the rich and famous are not closed to the hoi polloi. I do remember that in several US states, pointing out the homes of celebrities is a part of some guided tours, although no tourist stopovers are allowed.

The Asian expat noted that in his country, which takes pride in its equitable distribution of wealth (one of the best in the world), no one can be barred from entering any particular neighborhood. The only gated residential compound, heavily guarded, is the one occupied by their head of government.

The expat lives here in an exclusive gated village, where one of his neighbors, also a foreigner, told me that they have a few such enclaves in his Latin American country. But it’s not to keep out the sweating, toiling masses from rich neighborhoods, the foreigner said. It’s more for security in places where criminality is a problem. And he thinks it’s one of the main reasons for the development of gated villages in the Philippines.

Does living in a quiet, guarded, gated neighborhood make the Asian expat feel safe in this country? He certainly feels safer than some of his compatriots, whose biggest concern when planning to visit the Philippines, he told me, is their personal safety.

They’re not worried about a terrorist attack, although this cannot be ruled out anywhere in the world in the age of al-Qaeda.

Their bigger concern, he said, is criminality, especially in Metro Manila and tourist destinations outside the capital. They’re bothered not so much by horrific crimes like the Aug. 23 hostage mess, but by the possibility that they will be mugged in Manila, that their mobile phone might be snatched, that their iPad might be stolen when they take their eyes off it for a few seconds in a hotel lobby.

Coming from a country where only the military and police are authorized to carry guns, he said his compatriots are particularly worried about the proliferation of weapons in the Philippines, believing that this is inextricably linked to the crime problem.

One of the many troubling aspects of the Aug. 23 hostage crisis was how a dismissed cop could still have such lethal firepower at his disposal.

When the TOPCOP is finally fielded, the recruits should be able to reassure the world that those authorized to bear arms as part of their job in this country know how to wield the weapons properly.

The TOPCOP must also reassure the world that law-abiding people in the Philippines, locals and foreigners alike, are safe from those who are not authorized to carry guns.