Philippines to link police with foreign embassies to counter crimes against foreigners

The Philippines is seeking to set up a new contact point linking the country's police with foreign embassies inside the country in a bid to better protect foreign tourists and expatriates, a senior official at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs has said.

In an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday, Alex V. Lamadrid, Senior Special Assistant at the Office of the Under-Secretary for Civilian Security and Consular Concerns, said, "Right now, we have a plan to set up a contact point which would be the main contact point whenever there are any incidents involving foreign nations so that there would be better coordination between my ministry, foreign embassies and police agencies."

The interview was conducted on the sidelines of the Global Consular Forum which South Korea is hosting in the city of Songdo, west of Seoul, to discuss multilateral cooperation on consular issues.

The senior special assistant also underlined that although crimes involving South Koreans are "rare and isolated" incidents, travellers need to take safety precautions when visiting non-tourist areas in the country.

"It's very important that Koreans coming to the Philippines should inform themselves about local conditions of areas where they are going," he said. "We'd like just tell people to take extra precautions when they visit certain areas which are not usual tourist destinations."

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