June 17, 2001, The Philippine Star, U.S. State Dept Warns vs. RP Travel,

June 17, 2001, The Philippine Star, U.S. State Dept Warns vs. RP Travel,

Washington, June 17, 2001 - The US State Department is warning Americans to be wary of traveling anywhere in the Philippines because of the recent kidnappings of foreigners, bombings and political demonstrations.

In a travel advisory issued last Thursday, the department advised Americans "to exercise great caution throughout the Philippines," where the extremist Abu Sayyaf bandits abducted last month 20 tourists including three Americans, one of whom they claim to have been beheaded.

The advisory urged Americans "to be particularly cautious in public areas and not approach or linger in the vicinity of a bomb-related incident."

At the same time, a Paris-based press freedom advocates Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) urged the government on Saturday to protect journalists in Mindanao, calling it "the most dangerous region in the world for media professionals."

In a statement received in Manila, the international media watchdog said three Filipino journalists had been killed in the past six months in Mindanao.

In the latest violence, Juan Porras Pala, a radio commentator and city councilor, was shot by masked men Thursday as he drove a pick-up truck in Davao City.

Although hit by three bullets, Pala managed to present a radio program for local Radyo Ukay from his hospital bed the next day, the statement said.

One of his bodyguards was shot in the head and is in serious condition, it added.

Reporters Without Borders appealed to Interior Secretary Jose Lina to do everything in his power to find the perpetrators and discover the motive for the attempted murder of Pala, who was known for his hard-line anti-communist stance, notably against the New People's Army.

Pala served as a spokesman for the Alsa Masa group, an anti-communist vigilante, in 1987.

The statement said police authorities had failed to arrest any suspects in the killings of three radio journalists in Mindanao since November, although a former military officer had been identified by a witness to one of the slayings.

The group named the victims as Candelario Cayona, a journalist with dxLL station and was killed in Zamboanga on May 30; Mohammad Yusop, a commentator for rxID radio of the Islamic Radio Broadcasting Network, who was shot in the head in Pagadian City on Feb. 24, and Olimpio Jalapit, a broadcaster with private-owned dxPR radio station, killed in the same city last Nov. 17.

During a hostage-taking crisis on Jolo island last year, a number of foreign journalists were held by a small Moslem rebel group but later released, reportedly in exchange for million-dollar ransom.