Lai See | The Philippines is dangerous … because HKers say so

So, 80 per cent of people surveyed by Democratic Party lawmaker Frederick Li Wah-ming think the government's black travel alert for the Philippines should remain. Fung says this reflects Hongkongers' disenchantment with the Philippine government's response to the hostage incident two years ago when a number of Hong Kong tourists were killed.

This is very likely true. But it ignores the point that the travel alert system is supposed to be an assessment of the risks of travelling to a country. It's not supposed to be a reflection of what Hong Kong thinks about a country.

The government, or rather the previous government, has only itself to blame for this situation. In its search to appease local anger at the hijacking, it made the mistake of using the travel alert system.

In so doing, as we have said before, it has undermined the system. Anyone with half a brain can see that the Philippines is not as dangerous as Syria, which shares the black travel alert. It is irresponsible of politicians to encourage the view that popular sentiment should govern the outbound travel alert system.

The government is coming under pressure to change its plans for building a monorail to link Kai Tak and the new "CBD2" in Kowloon East. It views the monorail as an iconic environmentally friendly form of transport and a tourist attraction. But the proposal has drawn a mixed response from the Harbourfront Commission, the advisory body that oversees the development of the waterfront.

The government has proposed building a nine kilometre monorail with 12 stations at an initial cost of HK$12 billion. Annual operating and maintenance costs have been estimated at HK$23 million per kilometre at 2010 prices.