British Ambassador Daniel Pruce, in his recent visit to Puerto Princesa, clarified that the United Kingdom (UK) never advised against travel to the province of Palawan.
In a press conference on Tuesday, He emphasized that the UK never released nor issued a travel ban. “In relation of Palawan, let me be as crystal clear, the United Kingdom had never advised against travel to Palawan,” Pruce said.
“We had never advised against travel to Palawan, the recent changes that we made to travel advice in relations to Palawan were to adjustments concerning references that are previously in the advice, concerning specific information about the risk of kidnapping,” Pruce added.
The travel advice plays a very important role for UK citizens because they make decisions of where they will go based on the travel advice, said Pruce. “The travel advice covers the globe, [if you’ll] have a look [at] the UK Government website, you’ll see travel advice in every country around the world.
People [UK citizens] take decision about where they are going to go based on our travel advice,” Pruce explained. The travel advice is regularly reviewed and checked. The information for the travel advice came from the wide range of sources and it is very carefully composed, said Pruce.
The United Kingdom (UK) travel advice is categorized into three levels and each level corresponds to a particular color. Colors are used to identify the places in the map.
The three levels of advice are the following: Level 1 – Green: See our travel advice before traveling; Level 2 – Amber: Advice against all but essential travel; and Level 3 – Red: Advice against all travel. Palawan is colored Green in the UK travel advice and most parts of the Philippine, Eastern Mindanao is colored Amber while Western Mindanao is colored Red because of the threat of terrorism as shown at the UK Government website travel advice.