Lai See | Security Bureau shoots itself in the other foot over Philippines

Commenting on the recent statements by the Security Bureau recently is not unlike shooting fish in a barrel. Last Wednesday the Hong Kong government announced it had resolved its differences with Manila over the August 2010 Manila hostage crisis. A few hours later the Security Bureau lowered the black travel alert it had assigned the Philippines since August 2010. This more or less confirmed what everyone had been aware of: the black alert was a political decision rather than an indication of the risk to Hong Kong tourists travelling to the Philippines, a point we made last week.

However, remarks by the Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok on Saturday make a bad situation worse. According to press reports he says the black alert was not downgraded as a result of last week's agreement but tried to maintain the farce that the decision to lower the black alert was owing to changes in the security situation within the Philippines. He tries to finesse the downgrade by claiming it was in line with alerts issued by other countries. But no other country had ever advised, "Avoid all travel", which is what a black alert means.

Even if we go along with the bureau's line, it was still seriously misaligned to alerts issued for other countries. Despite the rioting in Bangkok where many people Hong Kong visit, Thailand was assigned a red alert, mean while the Philippines was supposed to be as risky as Syria. People in the Security Bureau must think we are as deranged as they appear to be, if they think people believe this guff.

We see that another bar that has been given a rough ride by the Liquor Licensing Board has been thrown a lifeline by the Municipal Services Appeal Board. The appeal board yesterday said it had overturned a decision by the liquor board, which in November had withdrawn the liquor licence of Quay West bar in Kennedy Town.

The bar has been granted a six-month liquor licence instead of the normal one-year licence and would be required to close its doors and windows after 6pm, stop selling liquor after 12am and no customers can stand outside the bar after 11pm. The bar lost its licence in November though was granted a temporary licence a month later pending the outcome of its appeal to the appeals board.