Wife is telling me of the recent killing of a foreigner in barangay Bagacay Dumaguete. Said the person was tortured first and may have had a safe inside the home. She said it sounded like an insider job. I have seen no news on this as usual.
Not sure there is any news to tell, my Policeman neighbour has not heard anything and I would have thought Alex would have as he lives in Bagacay, Having said that, Yes! it is bad but a Foreigner on a City Charter Holiday and a Fiesta tomorrow, so maybe things are being held over on Reporting. Usually when a thing happens around the Bagacay area Flip Flops is normally rife with stories, I was there only lunchtime and no one was saying anything. about this. Lets hope it is just Jungle Drums about a Break-in. with embellishments. Jack
of course second hand info is always changing but i hear the murder this past week of a foreigner in zambo/dauin is the torture one? either way things are getting a bit more dangerous, two foreigners is what i hear but i do hate spreading gossip or rumors. a friend of mine from pnp investigated the zambo one but no first hand info. That being said the alert that came out from the manila embassy today and other news about terror threats world wide should not be taken lightly. not only local violence but coordinated actions against foreigners seems to be building up...hate being an alarmist but... happy fiesta dumaguete! hope all is safe and fun!
The murder in zambo seems to be widespread but as of yet nothing confirmed,if true it will come out eventually! I also had a mail from the Brit embassy about the u.s worldwide terror alert but I'm sure they have better and bigger targets planned worldwide than the few of us here. Just keep a low profile and reckon all will be well
Large crowds make me uncomfortable regardless of where I am at. Probably because while I was in the military every USO event I attended at VBC in Iraq (I only went to 3 of those USO events) received a mortar/rocket attack. They also liked to shoot mortars and rockets at the dining facility right around noon when the line extended outside the DFAC......so I went to lunch around 2 right before they closed or just skipped it all together. 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas.....forget about it, I just stayed in my room...which was surrounded by concrete barriers. So fiestas make me VERY uncomfortable, I stand out in (and above) the crowd making it easy for anyone looking for a foreign target. Not that I'm really missing anything; if you've been to one fiesta you've been to them all. As a contractor I had to worry about local nationals learning my schedule/times I would go out to the gate to do repairs on systems for the Afghan military/police so they could try something silly. I would always make sure the times and routes I took to the gate were completely random and I never called the gate guard "OIC" (a contracted Afghan civilian) in advance to let him know I was coming....no matter how many times he demanded it and then forced me to submit to a pat down and backscatter scan. I still practice that here as well as driving really fast or really slow (I avoid going with the flow of traffic) to know if anyone is following me as I don't want any locals to know where I live or to be taking notes on when I will be home or where I like to go. Is all that overkill? Probably, but it soothes my paranoia and I haven't been killed or held up yet. I trust nobody but family....and there are even things I won't tell them.
I do the same thing especially after dark and definitely if I just hit an ATM machine. I have been followed before also, at least my paranoid self when seeing the guy behind me making a right left left turn and turning off their headlight thinks
It's just being street smart. If you let your guard down you could quickly become a victim. We always need to understand two things essentially here in the Philippines. 1. Many people here are desperate 2. You can get away with "murder" here
Remember "when in Rome" etc... Helps to try to blend in as much as possible. Yes, I know that's difficult if you are long nose and over 5' tall, but it does help to slow ones pace and act disinterested like the locals do. They don't so much as miss anything, but rather they don't necessarily react to it either.
