Efforts to prevent NPA from accessing foreign funds underway

MANILA -- Efforts are now underway to restrict New People's Army (NPA) rebels from accessing funds they have acquired abroad.

This was disclosed by Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs office chief Col. Noel Detoyato when asked on whether the government is doing something to stop the rebels from receiving funding abroad.

"Yes, including foreign funds they are receiving by deceiving the (foreign) donors and diverting the money to further their terroristic activities with the ultimate aim of toppling down the government and changing our way of life," he said in a message to the Philippine News Agency late Monday.

The military official earlier said only a unified and whole-of-government approach will defeat the NPA, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

"We have identified so many factors to eradicate the communist terrorists (and these are) prevent them from accessing funds, counter their mass base recruitment and front organizations," Detoyato said.

And they can only be neutralized effectively if the government will synchronize its efforts to counter them and the threats they pose.

"We can only do this effectively if the whole government will synchronize their efforts towards a common goal (which is aimed at containing these factors that responsible for the continued operation of the NPA movement)," the AFP official added.

Once this is done, Detoyato expressed confidence that the ideology espoused by Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria "Joma" Sison and his "blind followers" will be defeated once and for all. (PNA/By /Priam Nepomuceno)

Local tourists comprise 75% of arrivals in Dumaguete

DIVE DESTINATION. Apo Island in Dauin town, is among Negros Oriental's top tourist-drawers, being a favorite dive destination of many local and foreign visitors. (Photo by Judaline F. Partlow)

DUMAGUETE CITY – About 70 to 75 percent of the total tourist arrivals in Dumaguete City are local visitors and mostly Filipinos.

City Tourism Officer Jacqueline Veloso Antonio on Monday said it has been a trend since around 2014 that local tourists are far greater in number than foreigners, based on reports from hotels and resorts in this capital city.

“We ask them about occupancy and that means that this is only approximate and probably we have to add 25,000 to 30,000 as not all hotels religiously submit their data,” she pointed out.

“We only have data from 75 percent of the hotels in the city,” she said.

Available data from the City Tourism Office showed that total tourist arrivals in 2018 was pegged at 706,689, higher by about 14.75 percent compared to the previous year's 615,861.

However, according to Antonio, this does not include other tourists who are “unrecorded” to include those staying in Air BnB accommodations and smaller hotels.

Antonio attributes in part the spike in tourist arrivals in Dumaguete to those who come here for scuba diving in Dauin and other areas in Negros Oriental.

Meanwhile, Chinese, Korean, American, and Japanese nationals are the leading foreign tourists who visited and continue to visit Dumaguete City, she said. (PNA/By Mary Judaline Partlow )