The Security Issue

As a tourist, I cannot help but compare the Philippines and the US. Sometimes, I feel like I am on an unofficial exchange visit.

At the Washington Reagan International Airport during my travel to Texas, the security advisory was called “ORANGE.” It is some kind of high level security alert. Despite that, I went through only one security check.

Contrast that with my travel in the Philippines to the US. I went through three security checks in Cebu and another three security checks on my connecting flight in Manila. Yes, that’s six security checks in all!

Makes you reflect on how the Philippine bureaucracy operates and why there seem to be a lack of “professional courtesy” among the security personnel in the country.

Fast forward to last Tuesday on my way to Dupont Circle. The train made an unnaturally long stop at White Flint Station due to some police matter. After a long wait, we were asked to get out and stay on the platform. We, rush hour commuters, mostly somber looking watched as the police measured us and our belongings at a distance, checked the rail cars, and communicated with their radios.

Had I been in the Philippines, we were probably frisked, our packages sniffed by dogs and the contents of our bags searched. Searches, some necessary and some pointless, are common occurences in the Philippines. I find the searches conducted when entering shopping malls invasive and a waste of time. Do they even know what they are looking for? I just hope so.

Security measures vary from place to place. My like or dislike toward them is not of international importance. World peace is. Kalinaw!