EDITORIAL - Cebu needs an honest safety assurance from authorities

It’s really good that authorities have assured that southern Cebu is safe from any terrorist attack in the wake of security concerns from the international community following last week’s deadly attack on a Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo, Sulu.

Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino announced that the whole Cebu Province is safe from any terror threat during an Inter-agency Stakeholders Security Summit in Oslob town the other day.

“There is zero threat here. If they have travel advisories, to please coordinate first with our military and PNP," said Dino, “Visayas is a center of tourism of the Philippines. Dili man Luzon, dili man Mindanao. So we have to take care of our peace and order.”

For the police, no terror threat has been monitored. Police Regional Office-7 director, Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas, urged local officials and the public to be vigilant and report new faces in their areas.

Yes, Cebu really needs an honest-to-goodness safety assurance from the authorities. Good thing the police and military are now heightening security in response to the travel advisory from the United Kingdom advising its nationals not to visit several towns in Cebu over threats of terrorism.

The province must show to the world that international visitors are very safe during their stay here. With Cebu being a major tourist magnet in the country, we just cannot afford the province to be sidestepped by foreign tourists because of lack of security.

That is why local authorities need to seriously work on improving the province’s image as far as travel security is concerned. And their security implementation must be credible enough to convince the international community that Cebu is really safe from any terror threat.

With Department of Tourism Regional Director Shalimar Tamano announcing that Cebu and the rest Central Visayas recorded the highest tourist arrivals last year despite the travel advisories, signs are encouraging that the province will be able to shrug off the dust and post another record tourism performance.