DFA to six nations: Explain travel warnings

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) sent notes verbale to the US and five other foreign embassies that issued travel advisories on “imminent" terrorist attacks in Manila and parts of Mindanao, to explain why their respective governments did so. The notes verbale were sent to the embassies of the US, UK, France, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand on Thursday and Friday to explain the basis of their travel advisories, DFA spokesperson Eduardo Malaya said in a text message to reporters Sunday.

Malaya said the DFA move was in line with the instructions of President Benigno Aquino III, who earlier protested the travel warnings that he said had no “adequate basis." The DFA also stressed that foreign embassies must be given “in a timely manner any intelligence information regarding threats of terrorism so that precautionary measures can be immediately undertaken," Malaya said. “The central challenge is to give all the information necessary to protect the public and at the same time try not to frighten people unreasonably," Malaya said. The clarification will also allow Filipinos to “go back to their business normally, with the knowledge that our police and security agencies are hard at work," he added. Of the six countries, only the UK has so far clarified its travel advisory to the Philippines, Malaya said. The British Foreign Commonwealth Office told the Philippine embassy in London that it did not issue a new travel advice but added “rather a minor sentence… in their advisory, to include a few general locations where terrorist attacks may take place." London maintained that its assessment of the overall level of threat in the Philippines has not changed for over a year. “They also underscored that travel advices needed to be ‘accurate’ but also ‘sensitive to the needs and perspective of the Philippines,’" said Malaya. “The DFA welcomes this clarification from the UK government," he added. The DFA had said earlier that it will send a circular to all foreign embassies asking them to be extra cautious in issuing travel advisories against the Philippines. Despite this, France on Friday (Manila time) became the sixth country to issue a travel advisory against the Philippines when it warned French nationals of a “risk of terrorist attack" in the “entire territory of the Philippines," particularly in urban areas. “Risk of terrorist attack exists on the entire territory of the Philippines, particularly in urban areas (airports, shopping centers, places of worship, hotels and places frequented by foreigners, etc.)," said an English translation of the Nov. 4 (France time) travel advisory. — With Jerrie Abella/JE/VS, GMANews.TV