Briones: Allaying fears

WHAT else were they supposed to say?

Michael Dino, Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Visayas, during the Inter-Agency and Tourism Stakeholders Security Summit for Southern Cebu last Sunday, Feb. 3, tried to allay fears that may have been caused by the travel advisory the British government issued against the area after the twin blasts in Jolo, Sulu last month.

“Kuyawan ko (I was alarmed), ‘cause it is not true nga (that) there is (a) threat,” he assured stakeholders. “We are all here, making sure that Southern Cebu is safe and there is zero-percent threat.”

By “we,” I guess he meant members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)-Central Command, police officers and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), which, anytime this month, would set up the Southern Cebu Station in Oslob, where the gathering was also held.

Much had changed to the once-sleepy town since local fishermen found a way to keep migratory whale sharks from migrating. Tourists, locals and foreigners alike, had been coming in droves to commune with the gentle giants.

During the gathering, Oslob Mayor Jose Tumulak announced that the number of tourist arrivals had increased despite the travel advisory.

Well, the public would just have to take his word for it. Although, it would have been nicer if he gave us numbers. That way, authorities could keep tabs on the people who visited the town.

Mind you, the bad elements don’t go walking around with “terrorist” hennaed into different parts of their body. The smarts ones, that is.

Anyway, I thought Police Regional Office 7 Director Debold Sinas’ reaction to the situation was more pragmatic.

He didn’t go around admonishing a rich, foreign power for issuing an advisory to its citizens to avoid places like the south of Cebu. What he did was to assure the public that they were there in case something untoward happened.

“Even if we didn’t receive a threat, we, the police, in coordination with the AFP and the CG and other force multipliers, are always ready,” Sinas said in Cebuano.

The police official did not berate the British government for not coordinating with the local military, the police and the intelligence community before it issued the travel advisory.

Because, come to think of it, I doubt Prime Minister Theresa May has ever heard of Oslob or the other towns that make up the south of the province. If she has, then pardon me, but I doubt she even knows who Dino is. And don’t say she does, because that will only mean the stars have aligned to make a fool out of me. Yet again.

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