Constant threat
A travel advisory issued by the United Kingdom to its citizens wishing to travel to the Philippines or are already in the country has sent Philippine officials into a frenzied mode of denial. The bombings of a cathedral and a mosque in Mindanao, which likely precipitated the advisory, were isolated cases and confined to a small geographical portion of that island.
The greater part of the country is safe, they chorused. In Cebu, officials insist there is no threat and cited increasing tourist arrivals as a validation of that safety. The stir the advisory caused makes it appear as if our officials have taken affront to a UK government that was merely doing its job.
The UK, or any government for that matter, is duty-bound to protect its citizens wherever they may be in the world. The Philippines has time and again issued its own travel advisories and in fact has in place not just travel advisories but a more sweeping and stringent deployment ban to certain places in the Middle East.
Of course, because Cebu has enjoyed relative safety for decades, it has become tempting for officials to be lured into a false sense of security, that nothing of the sort that happened in Mindanao is ever going to happen to this blessed island. And naturally, we all hope it is going to stay that way.
But let us not kid ourselves. You and I know that nobody ever thought 9/11 would ever happen until it did. Every other act of terror in the world happened when either nobody was looking or was looking the other way. The reality we must come to grips with is that we are no longer living in a world as it ought to be.
The world has changed and changed for the worst and woe unto those who do not keep up with the change. We cannot keep pretending that just because Cebu is safe and has been for much of its history that it will stay that way. Again we hope it does. But it does not hurt to prepare for the worst.
And one way of doing that is to realize that as far as terrorism and other acts of senseless violence goes, no place is really safe. And that includes our own beloved Cebu. Our officials should not be so onion-skinned as to considered foreign travel advisories as acts of effrontery that are damaging to our fragile sensibilities.
In fact we should be thankful that foreign governments, armed with superior intelligence and more advanced forewarning technologies, are quick to respond to every bleep on the terror horizon. For in so doing, we get alerted as well. So instead of being offended and resentful, we should all be prudent and grateful. And be forewarned because anything is possible.
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