Philippine massacre should not scare adventure travelers from a beautiful country

November 23, 7:22 PMChicago Adventure Travel ExaminerTed Nelson

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   General Douglas MacArthur statue on Corregidor Island
   original photo by Ted Nelson

A massacre in the Philippines today is sure to scare many adventure and international travelers away from the archipelago nation consisting of over 7,000 individual islands. 21 people were killed including 12 journalists, and the wife and sister of a gubernatorial candidate in the province of Maguindanao in the southern island of Mindanao. Some of the killed were raped, tortured, and beheaded.

This is not the first time the island of Mindanao has been in the news for ignominious reasons. In May of 2001 the Abu Sayef, which is a militant Islamist separatist group with ties to Al Qaida, raided a resort on the island of Palawan kidnapping approximately twenty tourists. An American missionary couple and a Peruvian-American tourist were three of the captives and they were taken back to Mindanao and held hostage for ransom. The Peruvian was beheaded and a year after the raid Martin Burnham was killed during a rescue operation although his wife survived and was rescued.

These attacks are scary stuff and an obvious cause for concern, but it should not deter travelers from the island nation. The area where most of this alarming action has taken place is the southernmost island of Mindanao on which the feared Abu Sayef is based. This area is known as a Muslim autonomous region and it is outside of the governments control.

   The Batad Rice Terraces
   original photo by Ted Nelson

The Philippines consist of over 7,000 islands, but it is separated into three distinct areas. Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines it is one of the three island subgroups along with a few other islands surrounding the main island. Its capital is Manila and it is also the capital of the whole of the Philippines. In the center are the Visayan islands, which consists of the islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar and Palawan along with numerous other smaller islands. The last is Mindanao to the south which consists of Mindanao and other nearby smaller islands including the Sulu Archipelago.

There is an area to the west of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago that is known as the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao where most of perpetrators of these actions are found. On September 17, 2009 the State Department issued a warning to travelers visiting Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago due to the threat of kidnap-for-ransom gangs targeting foreign citizens.

The upshot is there are 7,000 different islands in the Philippines and the only dangerous area is on one part of the main island and a small archipelago to the far south.  Philippine people are in general very congenial and friendly people who for the most part really like Americans. Luzon, the Visayas, and even the eastern part of Mindanao are safe for travel.

It is important to note that the Abu Sayef have acted outside the island as the kidnappings in 2001 occurred on the safe island of Palawan in the Visayas and a ferry capsized leaving Manila due to a bomb attributed to them in 2004 killing over 100 people. However, the State Department says it best when they say that they are "concerned about the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests throughout the world. The Worldwide Caution reminds U.S. citizens that terrorism can occur anywhere."

Terrorism can occur anywhere and so can violence. The probability of ending up a victim of a terrorist act or a random act of violence is far greater in the United States than in a country like the Philippines.

In March of 1942 General Douglas MacArthur was ordered by President Roosevelt to evacuate Corregidor Island in Manila Bay to Australia as the small American army could not lose one of its ablest senior commanders. MacArthur actually considered resigning his commission and reenlisting as a private and to stay and fight with Philippine guerillas. In the end he obeyed the orders and left his bedraggled army to surrender, but before he did he vowed he would return.

    Malapasqua Island in the Visayas
    original photo by Ted Nelson

He did this because he loved the Philippine people and the country almost as much as his own after serving there for three tours of duty. Return he did in October of 1944 as he led the attack on the island that helped liberate the country from the Japanese Army. MacArthur returned to the Philippines as he vowed and so should the adventure traveler despite the terrible news coming from the south this morning.

Ted Nelson was recently named one of the top 101 Adventure Travel twitterers on twitter.  http://abroadening.com/161  Click on the icon below to follow me there.