Manila: The presidential palace on Sunday brushed aside adverse travel advisories being issued by foreign governments against the Philippines, as it said that it is the right of any country to keep their citizens safe.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, in a press briefing aired over government-run radio station dzRB, said that the latest adverse travel advisory issued by the USA against travelling to the southern part of the Philippines, is understandable as the Philippines also resorts to similar travel warnings to Filipinos in other countries.

“We respect the right of any country to issue any precautionary measures intended for the safety of their citizens while visiting other countries in the same way that the Philippine government, through our posts in other countries, has also issued several warnings whenever we feel that our citizens should take extra precautions in light of events that are happening,” according to Valte.

She cites as an example the caution or the alert levels that the Philippines raised for Filipino nationals in Egypt in light of the tense political situation in the North African country.

“I also remember the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) spokesperson mentioning that we did issue a precautionary warning to our citizens residing in Boston right after the bombing took place,” she added.

Nevertheless, Valte pointed out that despite such travel advisories to foreign visitors, the country posted two million tourist arrivals for the first five months of this year.

“This is the first time in Philippine history that the country has reached the two million mark in the first five months of the year,” she added.

Earlier on Saturday, the US Department of State, in an advisory, warned US citizens against the risks of travelling to the Philippines, particularly Sulu on the southern main island of Mindanao.

“US citizens should continue to defer non-essential travel to the Sulu archipelago, due to the high threat of kidnapping of international travellers and violence linked to insurgency and terrorism there,” the advisory, dated July 5, 2013, stated.

The warning — the third issued against the country in a period of one week — specified the threats to American and international travellers in the Sulu archipelago, where the government had for more than a decade been fighting the Abu Sayyaf, a group of Islamic fighters; and the security threat in the whole Mindanao island.

The US travel warning came in the wake of similar advisories issued by Australia and Canada.

In advisories dated July 1 and July 4, the Australian and Canadian governments respectively warned their citizens on travelling to the Philippines.

“We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in the Philippines because of the high threat of terrorist attack and the high level of serious crime,” the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on its website.

Canada advised its citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution” when in the Philippines.