Philippine Crime Capers

As a leading institution in a locality that recently experienced the near-total breakdown of law and order, one would expect The Times to be less sanctimonious in its portrayal of the difficulties a developing country like the Philippines is going through in efforts to contain criminality (“Good Guys Act Bad in ‘Wild East,’ ” Nov. 14).

The alarmist tone of the article is all the more perplexing considering the fact that even its more sensationalized accounts of kidnaping and other lurid capers in Manila are tame compared to scenes from the L.A. riots and your more commonplace drive-by shootings.

Although the crime rate is clearly a problem which the Philippines is hard at work at alleviating, a sober assessment cannot neglect to consider that for the first 10 months of 1992 crime incidents have declined by 20% nationwide as reported by the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission.

The writer fails to acknowledge the reason why kidnaping and its law enforcers have been thrust into the media limelight lately; precisely because the government has been resolute in the task of ferreting out unscrupulous police officials.

The administration of President Fidel V. Ramos has been steadfast in preserving our hard-won freedom of information.

The reporter inaccurately depicts a stampede of businessmen out of the Philippines on account of his “Wild East” scenario. His facts oversimplify and obscure the truth. While failing to take into account the complexities of business and investment decisions, he conveniently refuses to touch on the inflow of foreign investments to the country. The fact is such major international firms as Alcorn Petroleum and Reebok International of the U.S.; Keppel Industries of Singapore; and Toyota, Uniden and Mitsui of Japan, among many others, are in the process of setting up or expanding existing operations in the Philippines.

That the Philippines stock market has been rated as one of the top 10 performers in the world over the past few years by international media and financial institutions is hardly an indicator of chaos.

GIL ROY D. GORRE, Foreign Information Officer, Philippine Consulate General