US scares tourists from going to CDO, other Mindanao cities
Does our ambassador even know this?
WHAT assholes these Americans are, and what ass-lickers our officials are, and I’m sure you’ll agree with me and pardon the expletives after you read this column through.
The US State Department on May 8, nearly three weeks ago, issued a “travel advisory” telling its citizens (and the rest of the world, really) that they should not travel to the Sulu archipelago and Marawi City due “to crime, terrorism and civil unrest.” The travel advisory — really a travel warning — reads:
“Do not travel to these areas for any reason.
Terrorist and armed groups in the Sulu Archipelago and the Sulu Sea have historically engaged in kidnappings for ransom on land and at sea, in addition to bombings and other attacks. These incidents often target foreign nationals, including US citizens, local government entities, and security personnel.
Due to the risks, US government employees working in the Philippines must obtain special authorization to travel to the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea. The US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens in these areas.”
Bombing
I’d probably agree with their take on Marawi City, because of a terrorist bombing there in 2003.
But there have been no major incidents since 2022 in the Sulu archipelago, which actually has the best dive sites and beaches in the country — just begging to be developed. The US should instead ask travelers to adopt the “three-night” rule for travel in remote sites in the country which I had adopted when I was still traveling a lot during my Far Eastern Economic Review days, on the recommendation of military intelligence. Day One is for kidnappers to notice your presence in the area. Day Two, the kidnappers reconnoiter where you’re staying, and Day Three to organize who would do the kidnapping. But Day Four, you’d be gone.
What however demonstrates that the US State Department doesn’t care at all about us — even if Marcos II following his master’s dictate has made us a target for Chinese missiles by agreeing to have US missiles here — is that it put on “Level 3” (“Reconsider Travel”) much of Mindanao — except Davao City, Davao del Norte province, Siargao island and the Dinagat islands. A senior from Iowa planning a trip to exotic Mindanao will read not “Reconsider Travel” but “Don’t Travel.” The US travel warning claims these Level 3 cities are those in which “terrorist and armed groups in Mindanao have historically engaged in kidnappings for ransom, in addition to bombings and other attacks. These incidents often target foreign nationals, including US citizens, as well as civilians, local government entities, and security forces.”
Level 3
These Level 3 cities — would you believe — are Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga City, General Santos, Butuan, Iligan, Cotabato City, Valencia, Pagadian, Koronadal, Dipolog, Malaybalay, Ozamiz, Surigao City and Kidapawan.
An artificial intelligence app estimated that these cities would lose some two million tourists if they get scared of the US travel warning. Based on the tourism departments estimate that tourists here spend about P117,000 per visit, these areas potentially could lose P23.4 billion in income in the next 12 months.
Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro — such a booming city that even a number of young generation Metro Manilans have moved to it — naturally blew his top. He urged President Marcos to ask the foreign affairs department, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez and the Department of Tourism to explain what they have done since the US issued the travel advisory on May 8. (Absolutely no word yet from Marcos, probably in existential angst who to fire in his “bold reset.”) Well, they haven’t done or said anything, I guess, either because of their sheer incompetence that they are not aware of the disruptive US move or they are just too timid to disturb the Americans.
Romualdez has written three columns in Philippine Star since May 10, including one singing hallelujahs to the “leader.” Not a single word though on the US travel advisory, even if he could devote space to congratulate my colleague Antonio Contreras (vice chairman of the state propaganda unit PTV-4) for writing, “Marcos Jr. is coming out as both a liberal and a nationalist in so many aspects.” Was Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco (of the “Love the Philippines” fiasco) too busy helping her husband in his electoral campaign that her staff couldn’t bother her to deal with the US travel warning? (Frasco is useless now for Marcos II as her mother lost the gubernatorial contest in Cebu, which the president thought could be his anti-Duterte territory.) The US travel warning against our 15 very safe Mindanao cities have put them in the same “Level 3” category of incontrovertibly dangerous countries, since there are civil wars there or where peace and order has broken down: Burundi, Chad, Nigeria, Colombia, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Chad.
Seriously, it’s as risky to be a tourist in Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga City as it is in Mozambique and Chad? What shows that these Americans don’t really care about our country that the State Department probably assigned the task of determining what places US citizens shouldn’t visit to junior staff is the exclusion of Siargao island from the Level 3 areas.
Why tiny Siargao? Because it has been a favorite for young American surfers, and touted as the new “Boracay.” The embassy guys certainly wouldn’t like their favorite surfing site cited as a dangerous place, for which they have to get the written permission from their ambassador to travel there.
Not to put down the place, but just to show how stupid the US State Department travel warnings are, one blogger r/PhilippinesExpats wrote: “The island’s healthcare system, too, is a source of concern. With only one clinic in General Luna catering to minor ailments, and mostly STDs or motorcycle injuries, serious health issues require a long journey to Dapa, and even then, the suggestion is often to seek treatment in Surigao City. The lack of comprehensive healthcare services underscores the precarious nature of well-being on the island, where access to quality medical care remains a distant dream.” With 900 people killed in mass shootings in the US, in which the killers shot people at random, from 2024 to May 2025, it is our government which should issue a travel warning for the entire US.
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US scares tourists from going to CDO, other Mindanao cities
Source: Breaking News PH
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