Philippine officials have played down the risk of militants bombing a gathering of Asian leaders next week after the British and Australian governments warned of potential terrorist attacks.
The heads of 10 Southeast Asian nations along with the leaders of China, Japan, India, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia will meet on the central island of Cebu on December 11-13 for a flurry of summits, dinners and closed door tete-a-tetes.
"There's no specific and direct threats in Cebu during the summit meetings," Chief Superintendent Silverio Alarcio, regional police chief, told Reuters.
But the British embassy in Manila said it believed terrorists were in the final stage of planning attacks in Cebu, while the Australian embassy gave similar warnings and "strongly advised" its citizens not to travel there.
Australians who have to go to Cebu for meetings associated with the summits were told to avoid crowded places such as places of worship, bars, hotels, malls, outdoor markets and transport points.
Alarcio said the British advisory was "just a warning".
"That does not mean there was really an imminent attack," he said.
The Philippines is fighting Muslim and communist insurgencies and officials have told Reuters they were checking reports that members of regional Muslim terror group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) and local partner Abu Sayyaf were trying to get into Cebu.
"We've been getting regular reports of bomb threats in some big shopping malls," said one police officer. "We can't really ignore these things, so we're checking the information quietly because we don't want people to panic."
In March, police said an improvised bomb was discovered at a large shopping centre close to a convention centre being used for briefings for the summit of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) and a gathering of East Asian leaders.
The Philippines, which holds the rotating chair of ASEAN, has deployed around 10,000 police and 3,000 soldiers to patrol the luxury hotels and streets of Cebu and nearby Mactan Island to secure the gathering.
Counter-terrorism is set to take centre stage during the ASEAN summit with leaders hoping to sign a convention clamping down on the threat from Muslim militants such as JI, which seeks an Islamic "super state" across parts of the region.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.
