by jadegil6 » Sun Sep 14, 2014 3:09 pm
The whole island of Mindanao is not dangerous, only certain provinces, and especially Zamboanga where the Abu Sayyaf terrorists caused all of the conflict a few months ago. Those terrorists live in a chain of islands between Mindanao and Malaysia, and they come to Zamboanga frequently for supplies, etc......and too often decide to kidnap hostages who live in that area.
I belong to an agriculture group on Yahoo, and many of the members are ranchers/farmers in provinces in Mindanao, and they have been living there for years. But none live close to Zamboanga, and few of them would dare to venture to that part of the island. Mindanao is a huge island of 210 square km or 510 square miles, and it has about 25 million inhabitants, most of whom are peace-loving and honorable people. But a few thousand rebels and terrorists cause problems for everyone, and the result is that most tourists are unwilling to visit Mindanao, and businesses are unwilling to locate there, which does nothing to improve the economy of the majority.