PNP chief on US travel advisory vs Mindanao: We can’t blame them

MANILA, Philippines — “Well, hindi naman natin sila masisi (Well, we can’t blame them.)”

Philippine National Police chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said this Friday after the United States (US) Bureau of Consular Affairs issued a travel ban to some parts of Mindanao.

In a travel advisory issued on April 9, the US alerted its citizens to exercise “increased caution” when traveling to the Philippines.

It asked its citizens not to travel to the Sulu Archipelago, including the southern Sulu Sea because of incidents on “crime, terrorism, civil unrest and kidnapping” there.

The US government also implemented a travel ban to Marawi City due to “terrorism and civil unrest.”

Albayalde said the US government is just protecting its citizens, noting that there are indeed untoward incidents happening in Mindanao.

“Of course, pino-protektahan lang din nila ang kanilang mga citizens and hindi din naman natin dine-deny na may mga incidents lalo na sa parteng Mindanao,” the PNP chief said in a press conference at Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna.

(Of course, they are protecting their citizens, and we do not deny that there were incidents in some parts of Mindanao.)

Albayalde, however, said there are terror threats only in some areas of Mindanao.

“There are only certain portions or parts ng Mindanao na talagang medyo critical na sinasabi na dahil nandun yung mga center of gravity ng mga iba’t ibang threat groups,” he said. /ee

(There are only certain portions or parts in Mindanao that are critical and are considered the ‘center of gravity’ of different threat groups.) /ee