Palace downplays latest US travel advisory

Malacañang is not surprised over Washington’s latest advisory against travel to certain areas in the Philippines following the death of an American missionary in last week’s bombing at the Davao International Airport.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said yesterday the Philippines is "probably more understanding" because the country has often been the subject of advisories after business establishments are bombed in Mindanao.

"Well, that is to be expected," he told Radio Mindanao Network. "I don’t think we have to be too sensitive about that because we ourselves, even the Philippine government has advised its citizens to stay alert but let us stay calm."

However, Bunye said the latest US travel advisory will "just be temporary" and would soon be lifted.

"I think this situation is just temporary and we will overcome difficulties," he said. "Because we also issue negative advisories about other countries."

Last Friday, Bunye said Malacañang was not surprised over the advisories of Britain, Canada and France warning their citizens against travel to the Philippines.

"What we can do is, as much as possible, return to normalcy and we’ll see later on (if) we could be removed from that list of negative advisory," Bunye said.

The United States updated its travel advisory to Americans Saturday and warned them to avoid large areas of the Philippines, after Tuesday’s bombing at the Davao City airport that killed 21 people, including an American.

The State Department made the warning a day after Britain, France and Canada issued similar warnings to their citizens visiting, planning to visit or living in the Philippines.