Edge Davao 6 Issu 81

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EDGEDAVAO

VOL. 6 ISSUE 81 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, JULY 07-08, 2013

Serving a seamless society

Dealing with the travel ban By NEILWIN JOSEPH L. BRAVO njb@edgedavao.net

F

OR sure, this one is not fun. Davao City is one of the three Mindanao cities in the latest travel advisory released last week by Australia and Canada. Australia and Canada have issued warnings on Wednesday on renewed threats of terrorism and kidnapping in the southern Philippines, and has barred its diplomats from travelling to three cities in the area. The two countries have urged their citizens not to travel to large parts of the Mindanao region, with the Australian government specifically barring its diplomats from the cities of Davao, Cotabato and Zamboanga. According to a report by Agence France Presse, the travel ban went into effect from Monday and until further notice. The Canadian embassy advised its citizens to avoid

all travel to most parts of Mindanao “due to the serious threat of terrorist attacks and kidnapping.” The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website said the new advisory for the Philippines concerned terrorism and serious crime. On May 29 this year, the United States embassy in Manila also warned its citizens of a “credible kidnap threat against foreigners in Zamboanga”, it added. The history of Australia and Canada issuing travel advisory in the country is nothing new. In late 2002 Australia and Canada closed their Manila embassies for more than a month due to an unspecified terrorist threat. Both missions later moved to a new building. For years, Mindanao has been dealing with the bad reputation in the foreign community. Among the descrip-

tions ascribed to Mindanao on any search engine are the following: • Mindanao has been known as the hotbed of a decades-old Muslim insurgency and many parts of Mindanao like Davao City where peace and order is vastly different from other areas are affected in the process. • The island is also the stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, Islamic militants with links to Al Qaeda who have staged deadly bombings and kidnappings of foreigners for ransom. For this reason, Mindanao has not really taken off in terms of tourism potentials and no matter how aggressive the campaign pitch may be for tourism and business in the island, the issue of security threats will always plague Mindanao. This is the quandary besetting big cities in Min-

danao like Davao. Davao’s tourism sector has already felt the impact of the travel advisory and they feel very sad about the latest travel dossier. “We look forward to its lifting as we look continue to serve the huge domestic travelling market to Davao and nurture the growing interest of regional markets to the city and the region. We remain a vibrant and dynamic city and everyone is welcome and will be received very warmly ,” said Department of Tourism regional director Art Boncato. In reaction to the latest travel advisory, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte convened the city’s Security and Intelligence officials. Mayor Duterte has called for some security tightening measures as he gave credence to the report leading to the travel advisory issued by Australia and Canada.


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