Travel Safety in Philippines

Crime is a concern across most parts of the country but is more significant in urban areas such as the capital, Manila. The most common criminal tactics include bag-snatching, pickpocketing, and, less commonly, express kidnapping (the short-term abduction of people with the objective of having them withdraw money from an ATM or taking their valuables). Demonstrations are more likely to occur in urban areas and can turn violent quickly.

The Filipino military is engaged in ongoing conflict with a number of separatist and Islamist militant groups in the rural areas of western and central Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago. These regions, in addition to the wider island of Mindanao, also have elevated risks of terrorism and kidnapping. Major terrorism and kidnapping incidents are rarely reported outside of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, but the risk cannot entirely be discounted, particularly in Manila where low-level acts of terrorism have occurred.

There is a good standard of private health care in major urban centers, but medical services are less available and of a generally lower standard elsewhere (especially rural areas).