Maybe it is time to think before travelling to the Philippines?

Some will say that I am being alarmist, but this could happen to anyone:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/video...ety-of-irish-nurse-in-philippines-424581.html

Now, it may be that the drugs were for his own use, but in that case, why would anyone travel with such an insignificant quality of hash?

Remember that the "laglag bala scam" suddenly stopped, as soon as Duterte was elected?

Might have been a coincidence, of course. But there are those who suggest that the "laglag bala scam" was a "dirty operation" run to discredit the Aquino administration, along the lines of similar operations known to have been run by JP Enrile during the Marcos era.

Either way, if bullets can easily be planted on you in the airport, be sure that drugs can easily be planted on you in the airport.

Too big a risk for me to take. My name is unusual and I associate with known opponents of the regime.

Family Christmas plans revised...

Without a doubt the nurse was caught-up in a scam and the importance of the find - two cigarettes containing a combined total of 0.38 grams of Cannabis - was grossly exaggerated by the Philippine press at the time. The Police, prosecutor and judge all believed they would be in for a nice amount of "tea money" and as that wasn't forthcoming, the Irish nurse was sentenced to rot in a Philippine jail for 12 years. He's lucky he was arrested in the Philippines and not Indonesia or China where he may have already been executed.

As for the NAIA bullet scam, that was pretty much over by March.

Yes Andrew you're being an alarmist

Don't judge Andrew too harshly, he's a family man now and one who wants to spend his leisure years messing around on boats; that's a tad tricky if he's banged-up abroad! The risk of that is rather small but nevertheless real.

Andrew, the devil in me wants to remind you that the Irish nurse and the Taylors are victims of corruption permitted to continue during Aquino's presidency and that Duterte has vowed to stamp-out all corruption during his term in office.

I wouldn't hesitate for one moment to go to the Philippines, it is and will remain quite tame compared with many other developing countries.

Here on the forum we should do nothing but encourage people to visit the Philippines, the risk of running into any problems is very small indeed.

We are not the Philippines Tourist Board.

The "risk of running into any problems" is not small; I am sure you are familiar with the FCO's advisory on travel to the Philippines. The risk is significant, but the wise visitor takes care to mininise the risks. As you know I travel quite regularly to parts of Mindanao where my travel insurance is automatically voided, but I do so in a fairly careful way. (Not that that helped the Norwegians who were abducted from a marina near Davao...)

Bad things do happen. I know the father of a young merchant navy officer who was murdered when he went to Manila to visit his girlfriend - by her husband, who had been posing as her brother.

Did you perhaps miss the President's reference to us as "white monkeys"? He was speaking in Tagalog, of course. But I am sure that you will be reassured to know just what he thinks of you.

My Fiance flies to Manila every month and he never had any issues. Guess it depends in the places you go and what you do.

In the news they said that since the Duterte administration, the scams and anomalies in the airport has gone.

The world is a big bad scary place

Regardless of facts, there are some people who just preach yellow

Not unless "you" happens to hold an American Passport and is part of the US administration.

Mark - are you telling me that nobody has ever shouted "Hi, Joe!" at you?

I take your point.

I feel that people would be better served by our being objective.

I agree with Andrew that it's a point of concern, and one which people should be aware of before making their own decisions to travel, or not.

I admit to being a bit concerned about the story.
I read this.

http://www.thejournal.ie/irish-government-refusing-help-cork-man-philippines-drugs-2996335-Oct2016/

Which seems to indicate the problem happened in 2013. Have we any evidence that the problems in the airport are continuing?

I think ratios give us the necessary perspective. I won't stop visiting.

Well that's another Filipino relative who, unprompted , has told me that they now hate Duterte, and want to see him gone... as do many of her/their friends . Mentioned, were the extrajudicial killings, plus his insults to Obama and the Pope.

On a lighter note...

Talking of "the dangers of the Philippines", here's a dead bus!

Between San Fernando Pampanga and Olongapo. We should have been on it, but thanks to my faffing about we missed it and were on the next one, thirty minutes behind it.

There was much talk in the papers of the driver being out of his skull on shabu, of Victory Liner's bad maintenance, etc., but the truth is that he just swerved to avoid a little old lady who stepped into his path, and only one passenger was injured...

When the FCO advises against travel to the Philippines then that is the only time to show concern, at the moment the UK Government only advises against travel to the Southern parts of the Philippines. I think the Government knows a lot more about present and future dangers that may arise in the Philippines than us here on the forum.

That may have been true some years ago but not after HMG closed its (Honorary) Consulates in Cebu and Davao and cut back on British staff at the Embassy. These days our Embassies rely on local staff whose first loyalty is not to the Crown and Consular officials barely leave the compound in Manila unless it's for a party at another diplomatic outpost. These days I would pay far greater attention to people on the ground than to what the FO publishes.

This is the sort of thing that I have in mind:

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/10/08/47/adelaide-man-caught-in-drugs-war

Well at the end of the day I would much rather take notice of Government information as opposed to snippets of information given from people (and Andrew ) on the ground so to speak. At the end of the day it is the Governments travel advice that makes the difference between a traveller being insured or not if the countries in question have a red or amber travel alert.