MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism (DOT) is eyeing the establishment of courts for tourists that are open every day for 24 hours to cater to their concerns, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said.
According to Frasco, during a recent meeting with President Marcos, Jr., the President agreed that the Philippine National Police, the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Department of Justice would team up with the DOT to investigate and handle crimes involving tourists.
“We are now working with the DOJ, and we will be collaborating with the judiciary department for the establishment of a 24-hour tourist court for the resolution of crimes related to our tourists,” Frasco said.
For now, the tourism department is “beefing up” police forces in locations with a high concentration of tourists, she said.
More than 8,000 police officers have been trained under the TOPCOP Program, with help from the DILG and PNP. To boost security, the DOT has also trained 270 barangay tanod and barangay intelligence network members to support the police, according to Frasco.
“Alam natin na hindi naman enough yung number of police to the actual population, kaya naman po inexpand natin yung program na ito na isasali na natin sa training yung barangay tanod and barangay intelligence network multipliers in various areas in the country. And we are expanding this to various LGUs,” she said.
The DOT is now working with the Department of National Defense to “strengthen development of tourism” in key areas of the country.
As of August 19, 2024, the Philippines has welcomed a total of 3,860,730 international visitors. Of these, 92.05 percent (3,553,720) are foreigners, while 7.95 percent (307,010) are overseas Filipinos.
The leading source markets are South Korea, the United States, Japan, China, Australia, Taiwan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Malaysia.
World’s fifth riskiest city
The Philippines, particularly the Manila capital, was recently tagged fifth riskiest city for tourists by the Forbes Advisor report in July due to several factors involving tourism safety.
According to the platform, the city of Manila has the most number of natural disasters and also topped in personal security risk as well as health security risk which placed the city in the most risky cities category.
Manila scored nine for crime risk, five for personal security risk, seven for health security risk, nine for infrastructure risk, and 12 for digital security risks.
Manila scored 91.49 points in overall risk, according to the report.
