Honorary Consul of Finland to Mindanao Tony Peralta said the adverse travel advisory for Mindanao is unfair as it hindered foreign investors and businesses to come in the island.
“What I have found out is that several private sector entities want to come in but sometimes are hindered because of the travel advisory or the risk rating that Mindanao has, which is totally unfair,” Peralta said during the Business Matters media forum on Friday.
He mentioned that in January last year, the Canadian government issued a blanket travel advisory for the entire Mindanao.
“When we received that I really went on the public to say that such a statement is totally irresponsible and unfair and I continue to hold that to this very day because when you talk about the level of risk in areas like Davao I mean it’s just like any city that you can go around the world or any other place and each place has also its attendant risk but not in the manner that it is being portrayed that parang it’s really a place of hopelessness,” Peralta said.
Peralta said what they are trying to tell the foreign investors is that Mindanao is a good place to invest in and not as bad as other reports are showing.
“I attended a security briefing I was advised in that meeting not to travel outside of Davao after six o’clock in the evening to go to Digos and Tagum. I looked at the guy and said are you serious about what you’re telling me? I really understood now where the stories are coming from because there are agencies that advising the diplomatic community selling the story na hindi safe ang Mindanao,” he said.
Peralta also blamed negative reporting of international news entities and sources about Mindanao.
“I think now I beginning to understand that the aspect of travel advisories and why they are issued is because of the kind of reports that are fed to them by the different sources and most of these reports are very unfortunate na ang dateline reporting is let’s say established areas like Cagayan de Oro, Davao City so akala ng mga readers sa Europe that there is a problem here in Davao, that there is a war. That is why it’s really important to always point back to take about that being the dateline aspect,” Peralta said.
Peralta emphasized the need to continue correcting the negative reports about Mindanao.
“As of now I am not yet seeing a travel advisory (knock on wood) kay kung dili balik na pud ta having to sell that Mindanao is not what is being reported in international news outlets and that we are coming of age, that people can come and do business here,” he said.
Peralta also urged the private sector to be more active and not depend on the government alone to grow in a certain area.
“Year in and year out I observed that we have very good plans laid out by our LGU, by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) as the lead agency for the development of the entire Mindanao, you have a lot of plans by different parties even the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) pero pagdating sa implementation there seem to be a gap or lack of resources but I said we cannot just rely on government all alone and the private sector must do its part,” he said.
