“Plane” and the tourist

Many Filipinos are up in arms against an action movie called “Plane” that tells the fictional story of some travelers taken hostage by terrorists in Jolo, Sulu.

In fact, it seems to have been pulled out of theaters after adverse reactions, including from one newbie senator who seems to be fond of making noise and dipping his hands into everything but has had no remarkable accomplishments to date.

Among the reasons he cited was that while it is okay for local Filipino actors to portray our country in a bad light, it’s different when foreigners do it. That’s his flawed reasoning.

But we shouldn’t be so onion-skinned. First, it is a story of fiction. It isn’t real. To get in a twist because of one negative portrayal shows how extremely sensitive we can be. Should we react this way whenever we get offended?

Second, can we say something like this hasn’t happened here before? No, we can’t. In fact, foreigners have been kidnapped by terrorists here before. Look up the names Guillermo Sobero, Gracia and Martin Burnham, Robert Hall and John Ridsdel. See if you remember their stories.

Can we say the holding of foreign hostages by local terrorists will never happen again? No, we can’t. If it has happened once we can never discount the possibility of it happening again.

Third, as much as we are tempted to immediately rise to the defense of our country and insist that it is totally and 100% safe for tourists, we cannot help but look at what happened to New Zealand tourist Nicholas Peter Stacey while vacationing in Metro Manila recently.

Stacey was shot dead in Makati during an attempted robbery last February 19.

Yes, what happened to Stacey can be described as an isolated incident. Let’s make this clear; visiting tourists aren’t being killed left and right here. However, for this one particular tourist, we were not able to make it safe for him. That’s on us.

Instead of condemning works of fiction, perhaps we should pay attention to reality first; foreign visitors can become targets in our country no matter how safe we insist it is.