Look who’s talking?

HERE we go again. The U.S. is quick in the draw of issuing travel advisory, placing the entire country at a Level 2 status and warned Americans not to travel to Mindanao due to ‘terrorism, civil unrest and kidnapping’.

Now, look who’s talking.  The Americans under Trump are again throwing their dirty linens in this ‘poor’ country to cover up their ineptitude of protecting their own people.

 Americans are fond of playing guessing games and have no second thoughts whatsoever  of securing its citizenry out of harm’s way. Their crime stats say it all.

What  makes so alarming  is the tagging itself.  Their penchant of labeling the PH as a terrorist haven — not realizing so well that their own country has more than enough terroristic activities year in and year out – is itself a deafening statement that mirrors their lack of discernment,  diplomatic respect and  proper decorum.

 With no basis at all, the U.S. Embassy took no time in disseminating information to its citizens to consider travel plans carefully and at the same time exercise heightened vigilance when traveling to Mindanao.

That said, it’s not  fun at all to receive this travel bulletin  sourced out from nowhere. The Americans are experts on this,  and  it’s a classic case of adding insult to injury.

And most often than not,   it draws negative impact as to the capability of our  intelligence community to gather “credible information” before events get out of hand.

The reversal of the issuance of travel warnings could be possible if only our government, this current administration in particular, is hell bent on changing the rules of the game.                                                        
Maybe the key word here is doing the right thing of being proactive rather than the usually reactive mode.

Case in point: After the U.S. announcement, government functionaries immediately reacted and put up “security measures” for the people to take note.

A reactionary statement such as this: “Taking all reports seriously, keeping monitoring and vigilance in place and vigilance, taking all necessary precautions “ is overly abused, even to the extent of becoming irrelevant, and worse deafening to the ordinary ears.

We often hear this after the travel advisory : ‘Citizens are advised to carefully consider this travel advisory as you make your travel plans.  A review of personal security plan to include the avoidance of large crowds and gatherings is highly advised. Please remain vigilant at all times.’

And this is much deafening to the ears: ‘Security tightened amid U.S. travel alert’.

To play second fiddle on intelligence gathering places this country in a dismal situation in the eyes of the global community.   (ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com)