Philippines surprised by renewal of HK's 'avoid all travel' warning

The Philippine government expressed surprise that Hong Kong renewed its warning yesterday about travelling to the country because of the possibility of terrorist attacks.

Philippine Foreign Ministry spokesman Eduardo Malaya said 'we find it surprising that this updating of Hong Kong's 'black' travel advisory comes at a time when a number of Manila-based foreign embassies have lowered their travel alerts', AFP reported.

The updated warning comes as Philippine officials prepare to visit Hong Kong to discuss the Manila bus hostage-taking in August, in which eight Hongkongers were killed.

The Security Bureau warning to 'avoid all travel' to the Philippines appears on Hong Kong's outbound travel alert website. It links to several other websites and says: 'Some overseas administrations had noted the risk [of] possible terrorist attacks, including places frequented by foreigners, such as large shopping malls and convention centres.'

A spokesman for the Security Bureau said the update provided additional travel alert information from other administrations and did not represent a fresh assessment by Hong Kong authorities.

The bureau added the hyperlinks to give users easy access to the travel advisories of other countries, the spokesman said.