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Clinton visit shows PHL is safe, Aquino says


The visit of former US President Bill Clinton to the Philippines despite the US government’s travel warning on the country due to terror threats shows that the nation remains safe for tourists, President Benigno Aquino III said on Monday. "I would assume that that would be a vote of confidence. The former (US) president has a Secret Service detail still assigned to him who would object if there was a realistic and imminent terrorist threat," Aquino told reporters in an ambush interview in Malacanang. Clinton, who was US president from 1993 to 2001, will deliver a lecture titled “Embracing Our Common Humanity" at the Manila Hotel on Wednesday. Clinton's visit came a week after the US State Department issued a travel advisory warning its citizens against traveling to the Philippines due to “high risk" of terrorist activity not only in Mindanao, but also in the country’s capital city, Manila. “Terrorist attacks could be indiscriminate and could occur not only in the southern islands but also in other areas, to include Manila," the US travel warning read. Aquino has downplayed the travel warnings issued by the US and five other countries—the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and France—by saying they have no adequate basis because they were likely based on raw and invalidated intelligence reports. Aquino reiterated on Monday that other governments should think twice about issuing travel warnings based on raw data."I will urge again, especially our allies, let us be careful and finish the analysis of all the raw data before issuing all of these advisories," he said. He said other foreign travelers should take the cue from Clinton and not be fazed by the alleged threats, adding that the Philippine government has been "fine-tuning" its security measures. "I think you are all witnesses to the fact that especially in the most sensational cases, our security services have been doing their job. If we have not been able to prevent all, we have managed to effect arrests and file cases on so many instances," Aquino said. As examples, Aquino cited the surrender of the primary suspect in the September 26 Bar exams blast and the filing of cases in the bus explosion in Cotabato last month. "Even in the first six cases of extralegal killings or suspected extralegal killings, the Secretary of Justice has informed me that we have filed cases on not less than five or six already and syempre (of course), we have to go through the process but we are highly confident that we will be securing convictions," he said. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has already sent notes verbale to the six countries asking them to explain why they issued the travel warnings. - KBK, GMANews.TV

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