EDITORIAL - Irresponsible UK advisory

The travel advisory issued by the UK foreign office warning its citizens against traveling by ferry in the Philippines is both unfair and surprising, considering that as one of the leading countries in the world, the UK seems to have gotten all its facts skewed up.

The advisory made sweeping assumptions that clearly are not rooted on the truth. When it said ferries in the Philippines are often overloaded, lack necessary life-saving equipment, are not adequately maintained, and have incomplete passenger manifests, was the indictment based on actual first-hand experience?

If terrorists sometimes succeed in bombing Britain, maybe it is because its intelligence can get really spotty at times because many of our ferries are actually fast, safe, clean and professionally managed. Our bet is that the UK advisory was based merely on a tip from Mr. Bean.

True there are accidents that happen every now and then. But they happen just as frequently in Britain, don't they? And with even more casualties, right? Nobody wants accidents. The Philippines doesn't want one just as Britain doesn't. The UK shouldn't have condemned us as if we were the only ones beset by misfortunes.

But if accidents happen in the Philippines, at least we can say that we are not as advanced as Britain. Britain is one of the most modern, technologically advanced countries in the world, yet who is to say it is totally free from accidents to start pointing fingers at others?

When the UK issued its advisory, did it even have any figures on the number of its citizens who have ever taken ferryboat rides in the Philippines? Does the UK know if any of its citizens even prefer ferries to planes while traveling in the Philippines.

If the UK does not have these facts, how sure was it that Brits even take ferry boats in the Philippines. Yet, even without this vital information, it went ahead and made sweeping claims about safety issues it was not familiar with.

A lot of shipping companies that operate ferries far better than they perhaps do in Britain suffered needlessly from the bad publicity as a result. That it even assailed the frequency of storms, as if the Philippines had anything to do with weather, shows how irresponsible the advisory was. An apology is in order.