Albayalde downplays US advisory on kidnap risk

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde yesterday downplayed the United States’ issuance of a travel advisory over the supposedly high kidnapping risk in the Philippines, saying it was not a reflection of the peace and order situation.Albayalde said in a radio interview it was understandable for the US to include the Philippines among 35 countries with increased risk of kidnapping.“We cannot deny that there are kidnapping incidents especially in the southern Philippines, where there are terrorist groups so it’s normal for them to issue a security advisory for our country,” Albayalde said in Filipino.He added: “We should not worry. The peace and security in our country are under control.”Albayalde noted that the rate of kidnapping incidents decreased from 2017 to the first quarter of 2019.Majority of the kidnapping incidents occurred in Mindanao, with 68 incidents recorded in 2018. This was 11 cases lower compared with 2017.The PNP has recorded 10 cases of kidnapping so far in 2019, again mostly attributed to terrorist groups in Mindanao.“These were mostly done by terrorist groups so that is why we have martial law implemented in the whole island of Mindanao,” Albayalde said.Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano struck a different tone, however, saying the travel advisory was “questionable.”“We do not know yet how they came up with the list, but with the strong stance of President Rodrigo Duterte against criminality in general, we see no basis for including us in this list. We will request from the US Embassy what were the parameters used since even Malaysia and Russia were included,” he said.“A list is just a list. What we have are factual data pointing to the decreasing number of kidnapping cases in the Philippines,” Ano added.The latest incident of kidnapping involved an Indonesian, who was rescued by army troops from the Abu Sayyaf Group on April 5. He was kidnapped by the terror group in the Zamboanga peninsula.Another Indonesian kidnap victim in the incident died because of drowning while escaping the Abu Sayyaf Group.The US also named the Philippines a risky place to visit because of crime, terrorism, civil unrest and a measles outbreak.“Terrorist and armed groups continue plotting possible kidnappings, bombings and other attacks in the Philippines,” the advisory said.