WORDS BY: GELO GONZALES
IMAGE FROM: FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (LIONSGATE, 2008)
August 25, 2010 | 4094 views
5. No Philippine travel advisory from UK, stock market to be unaffected
Many were, and still are worried that the Philippines’ economy and tourism sector will suffer as a result of the hostage-taking.
Thankfully, early signs don’t point to a fulfillment of those grim predictions.
Inquirer reports today, August 25, that unlike Hongkong, the United Kingdom will not be issuing severe travel advisories to the Philippines. The British embassy’s formal statement reads:
“In response to the incident, the British government has not upgraded the level of our advice and we are not advising against travel to the Philippines. We have, however, included a factual reference to the incident in the text of our travel advice. This is standard practice for events of this type.”
Hopefully, this is how many of the other countries will proceed with their travel guidelines.
Another report from the Inquirer, this time, should be a source of relief. The paper says that it seems that the crisis will not be taking a heavy toll on the stock market according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr.
Says Tetangco: “That was a very unfortunate incident but an isolated event, and the markets will see through that and it should not have a significant effect on the market in general.”
Inquirer adds that foreign portfolio inflows will continue to boost the peso as it has been doing since the start of the year, in spite of the hostage crisis.
6. Rafe Bartholomew in the Philippines
And finally, let’s all move on to a topic that we’ll never ever learn to hate: basketball.
Rafe Bartholomew, author of the basketball book, Pacific Rims is in town, as he launches the book in the country. Spot.ph caught up with the white boy and chatted with him about all things Pinoy basketball, bading vs. unano showdown, and about his stay in the Philippines being the best years of his life.
Hey, come to think of it, we interviewed the guy too a couple weeks ago, where he said that he’d settle for Chris Tiu if the Knicks didn’t get Lebron James. Chris Tiu, we suggest you go talk to Rafe now.
