Too bad. I've been trying to convince my wife to take a trip to Palawan, but she's always insisted the Philippines is too dangerous. I've always insisted Palawan isn't in the danger zone. Now I may have to admit she's actually right. I'll never get her to agree to go.

Well, it seems like the right thing to do now is wait and see. One problem is getting accurate risk information for this "non-package-travel" destination. That said, I won't be going to the Philippines this year. It's a big world, so I'll wait for things there to calm down there.

I don't believe there are any immediate safety concerns in Palawan or in 90 per cent of the rest of Philippines.

It's safer than Martin Place, Sydney or Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne where there have been 'incidents' in 2014 and 2017 respectively. And what about Bali, Bangkok, London (2), Manchester and Stockholm?

Discussions bringing all those incidents up, and posting them in all the various threads, probably belong in the OMNI forum, and add no value to the Palawan discussion. There have been verified threats for Southern Palawan for a long long time, and it's noteworthy the gov't report recently suggested PP and area are at more risk than before. I love the Phils, am fluent in Tagalog, and have no desire to hurt tourism there and still will go there myself, but it's important to be realistic.

Ordinary and drug-related crimes are down. Things in the major cities (and the local news) are quieter than they have been for a while, due to the killer anti-crime campaign. Specific areas down south have always been a problem due to Muslim troubles, much like in Thailand or Indonesia or China.

Over the decades, me and people I know have actually seen or experienced more street and terror/gang-related crime in major US and Western European cities than in Manila and other major PH cities. That said, petty thefts and other opportunistic crimes against foreign visitors and local transit travelers used to be more common a decade or so ago, from what I remember.